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{
"id": 855048,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/855048/?format=api",
"text_counter": 217,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Ochillo-Ayacko",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 347,
"legal_name": "Ochilo George Mbogo Ayacko",
"slug": "ochilo-ayacko"
},
"content": "The Senate has equally been given the responsibility of being a platform through which citizens can exercise their sovereignty. It is assumed that whatever is within any county and any country is owned and controlled by citizens. When part of that is contracted out to private persons, the citizens cede that part of their sovereignty to the party to which that contract is made, or the party that is sharing that contract with the county or the citizens. It, therefore, touches on the sovereignty of the citizens. The body that is properly mandated to protect the sovereignty of the citizens, in the context of counties, is the Senate. I have looked at the Bill and I have not seen the role of Senate provided therein. Therefore, when I heard my sister, Sen. Dullo, lamenting about the things that were happening in Isiolo, I got concerned. This is because we have authority here, as the Senate, but we are letting it disappear by trying to rely on the county assemblies. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, where I come from in Migori County, we are known for very extreme things. The County Assembly of Migori has never raised a finger about the extreme things that we are known for in Migori, including suspicion of murder most foul. The assembly has also never raised a finger on the suspicion that public funds, which should have been available for use, are offshore in other nations. In fact, our county assembly has never done anything. I have taken time to look at what they debate and compared it what is debated in Homa Bay County Assembly. What is debated in the Homa Bay and Migori counties are quarrels over who gets an allowance to do what. They never think about what is affecting the public or what is important to those counties. Therefore, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if we are to sit here, as a Senate, and think that we are protecting counties by providing, ceding or abdicating our constitutional responsibility to protect them and leave it to the county assemblies, I can assure you that some time down the road, we will have abdicated our duties. We will have been party to robbing the public by allowing county assemblies to be the port of call when it comes to oversight. I heard Sen. Sakaja and Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. indicating that it would be difficult to grant approval, as the Senate, for these PPP projects, because there will be too much paper work. I believe that we were elected by many people and that we are remunerated well. We would like to have better remuneration so that we can sit here and go through the paper work, if that will protect the counties we represent. I believe that we have specialised committees that can look at all those requests and, perhaps, bring them to the attention of the plenary, if the need arises. In this Bill, there could be a provision for tabling of a request for approval of a PPP project. Thereafter, if no Senator objects to it, it can then be deemed to have been passed without objection and that would expedite the process. However, it would be unfair to sit here and say that we do not have time to go through the details while we are abdicating our responsibility to protect the rights and interests of our counties. Getting elected is a difficult thing. People look up to you as a person who will protect their interests, take time to go through voluminous documents and see what their interests are all about. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, even if we do not talk about approval for each and every PPP project, we then need to have a certain threshold of projects that have to come before the Senate. A project of that kind that quickly comes to mind is a project that, perhaps, The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}