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{
    "id": 879978,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/879978/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 246,
    "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": "budget, being a tool, is used by the county executive to either delay the work of the county assemblies or even make sure that it is not even implemented. Where no money is provided, there are always challenges. The other thing that needs to be addressed is the issue of the speakers. You realise most of the speakers of county assemblies, unlike at the national level where to some extent the Speaker can make independent decisions without fear of anything, are at the mercy of the MCAs. They do not have the power to make independent decisions because they are always being threatened with impeachment. Any time it seems they do not agree with the MCAs, impeachment looms. The Senate needs to take this opportunity and think through that problem and come up with a legal framework which will solve it, so that speakers can do their work without any fear in terms of impeachment or without really thinking about whether the decision is the position of the MCAs. So long as you lose independence in terms of decision-making, then the assemblies cannot be effective in their work. The point which is important is how to solve conflicts at the county level. There are conflicts arising in different counties, where the county assembly may not be in agreement with the county executive. Since they do not seem to have a very clear conflict resolution mechanism, there are lots of unnecessary delays in terms of solving the matters so that work can continue. At the end of the day, service delivery suffers at that level. The Senate needs to move very quickly and think about how conflicts can be resolved within a very short time so that service delivery is not disturbed. If those issues are addressed by the Senate, devolution will become very effective and Kenyans will benefit from it. Personally, I believe in devolution. If you look at research reports which have been done in the past, devolution has been proved, even in theory, to be the best practice everywhere in the world. If we get over these small challenges, automatically we will have good services delivered through devolution. It is important that the Senate, since they are in charge of county government…Because the Constitution clearly stipulates that the Senate will be in charge of county governments in terms of their requirements. It is high time that the Senate focused more on things which touch the counties and then these other things like interrogating Kenya Airways (KQ) or Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) on how they use money. Those national functions can take the second level. Matters to do with county governments should be activity number one to the Senate. They need to be a priority. So, we would want to see more of this kind of Bill so that we can help the country grow. With those remarks, I support. Thank you."
}