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"content": "they are not the ones who designed or prioritised the projects or wished for them to be built there. Therefore, public participation will give a chance to the citizens of this country to say what exactly will benefit them, how much should be allocated and, once allocated and whether it is adding value to them as a county. This is therefore a very important Bill in terms of making the counties to own the projects. The Bill will empower citizens to chart the way forward for their lives in terms of what benefits them. That is why we have a Constitution that has given us county governments and we can now chart our way forward as county governments in terms of what we need in each ward. For example, is a tarmac road or a school a priority? If it is, how many students are benefitting from the Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) centre? Madam Temporary Speaker, in some of our wards, we see the county government just allocating money for a very beautiful ECDE classroom, where an estate has so many rich people who are taking their children to private academies and schools. Therefore, the public ECDE project, which is well-built and on which a lot of money has been used, ends up not benefitting the estate because that is not their priority. Possibly,the priority of that estate would be a police station and security, whereas we are putting up a well-built ECDE classroom with no teachers. Therefore, they ask why the Government should build a classroom or an ECDE center which has no teachers. They find it better to go to a private school, which has already employed an ECDE trained teacher. Madam Temporary Speaker, this Bill also enables citizens to contribute to policies, regulations and Bills that are very important to them, and not only to projects. Today, as a country, we suffer because of the enforcement of some Bills and policies that are not friendly to us, because people did not think about them; they did not go through them and they did not contribute to them. This Bill, therefore, promotes public participation in terms of contributing to these very important regulations that govern the people. Today, we have several Government institutions that are enforcing regulations that mostly affect communities. You will hear people in these communities asking when a particular Bill was passed. They also ask whether there is such a Bill that is affecting them; or why they are being forced to do this or that. They then realise that there is a regulation or policy that is being used to govern them, to which they did not contribute. This Bill, therefore, promotes the contribution and participation of citizens towards making policies and regulations which can be used to govern them in a friendly way. Madam Temporary Speaker, I want to congratulate the people of Busia County for being aware of their rights and for being concerned about the unplanned projects that were being done using their monies without their participation. I congratulate them, not because I wish their Governor to appear in court, but because I see an aspect of them being aware and protecting their monies, property and projects. They wish that projects be completed where money has been allocated. This is unlike in many parts of the country, where many of our people do not know that they have a right to participate in saying, “this is what we want; this is what we do not want and for these reasons.” Madam Temporary Speaker, as I support this Bill, I wish that the authorities that have been mentioned therein and which are going to be coming up with regulations and The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}