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{
    "id": 813811,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/813811/?format=api",
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    "content": "at and possibly vacate the gazette notice that has purported to confer the status being complained about to Maralal Town, which will bring to a halt most of the attendant issues thereto. The Committee that you may refer the Petition to can then deal with the rest of the issues. One can see the driving force behind the distinguished Senator bringing a Petition signed by 61 honorable residents of his county who are opposing the governor’s action. Many governors are driven by very extraneous factors in arriving at these rather irrational decisions. First, I would want to believe that the governor is eyeing the money for the urban support programmes. Second, he probably wants to create a municipality for him to create jobs for his cronies. Three, and more important, he wants to create a municipality then convert the public land into leaseholds and subdivide then into plots then share them out as they always do. This is something that the distinguished Senator has a duty to his people. I laud him for doing so. A municipality comes with attendant issues. As Hon. Senators said, there are people who have group ranches or freehold properties that will quickly be brought into the dragnet of taxation. However, many villagers and rural people do not have incomes to pay rents and rates for their land. The upshot ends up with this land being auctioned regularly in lieu of rate payment as punishment. This has dispossessed many Kenyans of their properties in urban areas. This House, as the protector of counties, their governments and their people, has a duty to stand firm on this. The courts of law have held, and this Parliament has a legal duty to follow court precedence, that any decisions that affect people in any part of this country that are undertaken without public participation are nullity. They are nullity because one single person in the name of a governor cannot purport and pretend to be the custodian of the interest of people without consulting them. Do the people of Maralal want a municipality? Do they know what a municipality portends to them? Do they know what they will lose by having a municipality? Do they qualify to have a municipality? All these answers will inform the Committee that you will refer this Petition to, to make a decision that will help the people of Maralal. I want to tell the governors out there - who we ought to work with very closely - they have absolutely nothing to lose by working with the Senators. The Governor for Samburu County could have consulted the Senator so as to find out if the steps he was taking were in the interest of the people and whether he was following proper legal steps as provided in law. It does appear that this was not done. This House remains the House of reference and the House of appeal by the people of this country. People come to this House by way of Petition because they see this House as a bastion of justice. They see it as a place where interest that would have otherwise been pursued elsewhere, including the judiciary, can be best prosecuted on the Floor and in the Committees of this House. I urge the Committee that you will refer this matter to, to move diligently and within the prescribed time to bring a report that can help the people of Samburu. We have said this before and I want to say it again, the Committees of the House that you refer a Petition to take far too long in prosecuting these petitions and bringing outcomes to this House, to the extent that a matter as urgent as this, may end up taking 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."
}