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{
    "id": 863497,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/863497/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 375,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Turkana Central, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Lodepe Nakara",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2926,
        "legal_name": "John Lodepe Nakara",
        "slug": "john-lodepe-nakara"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity to add my voice on this Bill. First of all, I would like to thank the Senate for taking its time to come up with this Bill so that we do not have confusion in handing over during the time of an incoming and outgoing governor. There is an issue that is very sensitive that the ad hoc committee that will organise the assumption of office will have to deal with. It is the issue of gender. Most of the people who have been appointed as chief officers are men. That is including the County Commissioner and others. I suggest that in future, we need to be clear on the gender and the consideration of persons with disability. This is so that we do not have a committee comprising of one gender doing this work. I would like the Chairman to take note of that so that we have a gender sensitive committee to run the affairs during that period. I would also like to bring to the attention of the House Clause 5, which states that members referred to in sub-section 2(1) shall be nominated upon the declaration of the final result in the election of a governor. There could arise a petition. What will happen if this is declared before the petition has been heard? Sometimes people rush to court to stop the swearing in or the handing over of an individual. We need to understand that process and probably make sure the courts give rulings immediately. Sometimes the courts take time before giving a ruling. Whoever will be given the office will assume power. Once that person gets into office, he or she will now use the resources of the public to fight his or her battle. It is good to see that we give a period of time, if everything is cleared. That is so that we do not have repetition or any dispute. Then, we will declare the members who will form the handover committee to continue with their work. I do not know how we can address that, but I want the Chairman to take note of that. Sometimes we have legal issues that come after election. Some members would want to stop the swearing in and assumption of office of an individual. Concerning handing over, it should be said very clearly that the property a county government has belongs to the public. I can highlight the case of Tharaka-Nithi where a big generator which cost a lot of money disappeared immediately the new governor came in. We need to see how we can safeguard the property of the public during that period of handing over. We should make sure we protect the properties immediately after election. Sometimes those who are already in power take that period to take away some properties from their offices and assume they belong to them. We need to address that issue. We should have a committee to take all the records of all properties of a county government so that in case the sitting governor loses, they will not come back and take properties which were not recorded. That is an issue that we need to address. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, on the process, the Bill has provided for that. We want to thank the Senate for this Bill. We have had cases where some governors left unceremoniously, without even handing over keys or welcoming the incoming governor to take over. We need to put in place a legal requirement that the outgoing governor must not leave office without handing over everything that is needed. He has mentioned about other tools that are supposed to be given to the new or incoming governor. Some of them disappear once the incumbents realise they have been defeated and that have done a lot of harm to county governments. We need to get a way of making them abide by the law that they cannot leave office or the country until everything is handed over to the incoming governor. If we do that, we will safeguard the properties of the county government. With those few remarks, I support. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}