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"speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. For the record, I rise in support of the County Statistic Bill (Senate Bills No.9 of 20180. I begin by giving my hearty congratulations to the Mover, Sen. Farhiya. Statistics is everything. We all know that there is a lot of confusion in our counties in terms of allocation of money for development. It is not possible to have a scientific approach to the utilization of resources that we send to the counties if county governments do not have good statistics. I, therefore, have no doubt that if we enact this Bill, we will have given full meaning to Article 96 of the Constitution that requires us, as Senators, to protect the interests of our counties. First, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, what I like about this Bill is the fact that we are now going to have data collected, analysed and ready for dissemination. We all know the critical role played by our chiefs, assistant chiefs and village elders in our counties. However, most of these officers do not have statistics that can assist them to disseminate information that is factual to our people in our counties. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to do away with this myth by Members of the National Assembly, including our Women Representatives, that county governments are separate in terms of development from Members of the National Assembly or the Women Representatives. In fact Article 6 of the Constitution, which talks about devolution and access to services, is very clear that the national Government and the county governments are distinct but interdependent. It further states that they shall conduct their mutual relations on the basis of consultation and cooperation. I am saying this because in terms of allocation of development money in our counties and constituencies, there is a lot of duplication. This is happening because we do not have statistics at the local levels – in the counties, constituencies and sub counties – that can assist the governors, Members of Parliament (MPs) and Women Representatives to bring about development without duplication. How I wish that we could reconsider Clause 4 of this Bill and include MPs and Women Representatives as people who should be getting advice from statisticians at the county level. Going by the provisions of Article 6, there is nothing illegal or unconstitutional if this information was to be given to the governor, MPs and Women Representatives. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will give examples. As we speak, most county governments are now giving out bursaries at the county level. Similarly, MPs are giving bursaries at the constituency level and our Women Representatives are giving bursaries in the counties divided amongst the constituencies from the respective counties. What will be illegal or unconstitutional if the statistician was to share information to all those elected leaders? The spirit is that we want to ensure that we do not have a duplication of duties and services at our counties, constituencies and wards. That is actually what is intended by Clause 4(c)(i), which says that the intention is to ensure that there is avoidance of duplication on statistical information. This is, therefore, beneficial to both leaders from the head of the county cascading it down to the level of the ward, led by the Member of County Assembly (MCA). 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."
}