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{
    "id": 813394,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/813394/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 138,
    "type": "other",
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    "content": "disparities and questions that have arisen in our census every 10 years should not arise. The way to resolve it is by having this process where every county can collect statistics on the number of people who are residents in those counties. Similarly, since this is a concurrent function, the Bill in Part II and Part III has put this work together, so that once statistics are collected from the 47 counties, they can be collated and put in a database, so that they are not duplicated. Since the Constitution was promulgated, unfortunately – and Sen. Farhiya can confirm this – the Statistics Act has never been amended. It is still 2009. We have proposed an amendment, as the Committee of Finance and Budget, where we shall have a consultation process which will reconcile the information. Data should not be a secret; it should be accessible to every Kenyan. There is no reason the people in our counties should not access, for example, the data I am holding on men and women in Kenya. There should be a requirement that this data can be available on a platform, even if it is on The Portable Document Format (PDF). That is what we have proposed in the County Statistics Bill, so that, that information can help in planning. Planning is central to devolution and devolution is about services. The principle under devolution is that services must be rendered at the nearest place to the population. This Bill is late, but since it is here now, we should insist that every county, at the end of five years, other than giving a report on assets and liabilities of counties, should also provide information on what they have done on the aspect of statistics and various other aspects that can be identified. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the book that I was reading, produced by the Society for International Development (SID) and the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), we have statistics on the people who are using firewood in Makueni County, people who have mud-thatched houses, people who are not using electricity or using kerosene lamps and those who are using electricity. In the part concerning the use of firewood, it has informed the county in terms of using their plans of afforestation and ensuring that people plant trees. The places in Makueni Constituency where they use the most firewood have suffered the most in the last floods because there was surface runoff. I have that information on my iPad. Therefore, there is no reason why every county should not have similar amount of information. I know that in Makueni County, for example, Kilome Constituency has the most underground rivers. The county would be best placed if it had plans of sinking wells in that constituency. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to second the above Bill. Thank you."
}