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{
    "id": 879977,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/879977/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 245,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Makali Mulu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1955,
        "legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
        "slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. Let me also support this County Governments (Amendment) Bill. As many speakers have said, it is supposed to provide clarity in a situation where dissolution of a county government might be necessary. You realise with the current law there are gaps. These are the gaps which we are trying to address in this Bill. I agree with Members who are saying that the Senators have their job cut out for them and it is unfortunate that we see a lot of sideshows. Their work is clearly cut out for them, when you look at the gaps. One of the critical areas which I think has been addressed is the issue of timelines. The current law does not have clear timelines in terms of how long should a commission take to do its work once it is formed. Once they have done their work and forwarded their recommendations to the President, how long does it take the President to look at the recommendations, make a decision and send feedback to the Senate? It also addresses areas where there are gaps in terms of, in case the commission makes recommendations and the President does not agree with those recommendations, what happens? Is it that we are always assuming that the commission’s recommendations will have to be accepted or approved by the President? I think the President can also say he does not agree with the recommendations. What the law is proposing now is to make sure that in a situation where the President does not agree with the recommendations of the commission, what happens is clearly stipulated. At the same time, once this report is sent to the Senate, it might not have to agree with what the commission and the President have said. In a situation where the Senate disagrees, what happens? Currently, there are gaps. This law fills those gaps by providing clearly what will happen in case any of the teams does not agree with each other. Where they agree, what steps need to be taken? That is why this law becomes very critical. In fact, by all assessment, this law should have come long time ago. It is only by God’s mercy that we do not have many cases of county governments being dissolved. It was only in the case of Makueni. If that happened more frequently, we would have faced a lot of challenges. Now that the law is coming before we get to that challenge, it is important that, as a House, we support and fast-track its conclusion to become an Act of Parliament so that in case there will be need, then it will be addressed. Even as we address matters to do with dissolution of county governments, there are other areas which I think are also very urgent and which the Senate also needs to fast-track. One of them is the issue of budgets. Currently, the county assemblies’ budgets are factored in the county executive budget. It is the county executive which, at the operational level, administers the budget of county assembles. This causes a lot of conflicts at that lower level. At times, that 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."
}