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{
    "id": 813456,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/813456/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 200,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13219,
        "legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
        "slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. To give some importance to the person who will head this unit, I request that we reconsider the qualifications that have been set out in Clause 5 of the Bill. We do not want to pass a Bill that will create problems in terms of implementation. I have concerns with Clause 8 which talks of people who will sit in the Committee. Clause 8(d) talks of two statisticians who will be picked from among County Executive Committee (CEC) members but I have not seen if a criterion has been put down or a body that will be mandated to pick the county executives which might create room for conflict. The same is applicable for Clause 8(e) that talks about representative of research institutions. I do not know if we have a body that has brought all research institutions together such that we can write to them and ask them to nominate one representative, hence, there is something that is not clear. If one is to write to our public universities, then the question is: Which university will we write to seeking for the nomination? Those are some of the grey areas that we need to tie up. This Bill reminds our national Government and county governments that there should be consultation and cooperation with each other. That is what we have in Clause 11. Quarrels between National Government and county governments do not serve the interest of the people that we represent. It is good that we understand that Article 6 recognizes that the two levels of government are independent and distinct but interdependent. The idea of bringing the spirit of consultation is giving an opportunity to the national Government and county governments to realize that we serve one people and we are all from the same country, so we should not have friction, instead, we should work as an entity that is geared towards bringing services to our people. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Clause 20 looks at the regulations though we should not give too much power to the county executive without putting in place mechanisms for checking abuse. Clause 20(1) states that- ‘The county executive committee member may make Regulations for the better carrying out of this Act.’ It is always a good safeguard to say that the county executive committee member will make regulations with the approval of the county assembly for they could pass regulations that may be counterproductive. Therefore, there is need for the county assembly to act as a check on the powers of the county executive. In terms of where this committee will sit, we can now bring the spirit of devolution by picking one of our counties as the headquarters of this particular committee. There is no reason as to why all these bodies should be concentrated in Nairobi. We could pick a different county or even say that this committee will have its headquarters in any other county other than Nairobi. With those few remarks, I support this Bill. 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."
}