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{
"id": 876477,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/876477/?format=api",
"text_counter": 431,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": {
"id": 440,
"legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
"slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
},
"content": "Therefore, we must make, in this law, provisions that will make it mandatory for the county to report, including the amount of money that is spent on social economic rights. If you talk about the right to food, we must go to Elgeyo-Marakwet County and find out how much money has been put in the agriculture sector to guarantee this right to food. If we go to the right to health, we must ask how much money has been put into health, including health facilities; how much is being spent and how much is being raised. Madam Temporary Speaker, that level of accountability will make it possible for us to track that which is--- That is why I am challenging the Mover that we must move a little bit further to provide mechanisms for tracking realization of these rights. That way, citizens can act on it and complain to the oversight institutions. If we are doing monitoring and evaluation, we are not doing it for the sake of political arguments. Sometimes when I talk about issues that affect my county on the Floor of this House, the only response that you get out there is, “How much money did the Senator bring?” yet, we know that the money that we have budgeted for in this House is the only money that is being used out there in the counties because very little is being raised by counties. Madam Temporary Speaker, there is no money that a governor, a Member of County Assembly (MCA), the President or a Senator takes to any county. The point is that this money is actually being divided in this House, and it is the role of the Senator to fight for those resources as to which county it goes. However, no individual can use money from his pocket and say that they are running the State. Therefore, some of the most ridiculous questions that you hear sometimes are when someone tells you, “O, we know the Senator fought for roads in this county. He fought so hard to ensure that infrastructure is done in this county. However, that is national Government money; where are his own roads?” As if I was supposed, after fighting for national Government projects to go to my county, to now go ahead to my bank account and withdraw other money to be used in whatever project. Sometimes the response that is given to us is ridiculous. People talk about, “You know the Senator is raising these issues because he wants to be the Governor.” What is the problem with that? If the Senator raises issues for five years and they leave this House like the six colleagues who left this House to become governors, another Senator who comes here will pick from where that Senator left in dealing with the issues. He will continue with the standard and vigour that that Senator pushed those issues, so that when that Senator is a Governor in his county, he must not complain if we are pursuing certain levels of accountability vigorously in the Senate so that social economic rights are achieved. Madam Temporary Speaker, let me tell our governors that there is no benevolence in serving people. It is not an act of charity, but a duty. You swore by the Constitution and agreed that you want to serve people. You must be willing to be put to task and be held accountable, because the job of being held accountable is provided for in this Constitution and given to the Senate. We will do it with a lot of vigour, and that is why we are proving a legal framework that will enable us to pursue these important rights. Madam Temporary Speaker, there is something else that we must do as a nation; we cannot oversight the rights of Kenyans from both national and county governments if we are going to, in any way, inhibit the functionality of our national independent 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."
}