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{
    "id": 882375,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/882375/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 335,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, statutory instruments are means of making law. Law is made from Bills that have been passed by the assemblies. They can come up with bylaws, circulars or regulations. The absence of Statutory Instruments Act or law for county assemblies has created a gap where county executives have been doing crazy things without consulting the people and the county assemblies. Madam Temporary Speaker, to further reinforce my argument that county assemblies are important, I dare say more important than the Senate, to an extent, in making sure that devolution succeeds in the counties. They have functions that the Senate does not enjoy. For example, county assemblies are involved in the budgeting process. Right now, each and every county assembly is doing public participation and hearings on County Fiscal Strategy Papers (CFSP). As the Senate, we are sitting in Nairobi waiting to pass the Division of Revenue Act and County Allocation of Revenue Act while county assemblies are on the ground talking to people and getting their views on the budget. County assemblies are involved in appointments. They are the ones who appoint the County Executive Committees (CECs). They can hire and fire. They are the ones who endorse or approve County Public Service Boards (CPSBs). They also exercise financial and operational oversight. They can also impeach the governors. That is why if we want devolution to succeed, the Senate must invest a lot of its time to make sure the county assemblies are strong, empowered, financed and supported by legislation to ensure that the objectives of devolution are achieved. Madam Temporary Speaker, we have seen interesting circulars, notices, proclamations and by-laws from the counties. There are some, for example, in Murang’a County where they came up with a programme called tafuta tumbili, which in English means ‘look for the monkeys.’ In that programme, they targeted to look for 10,000 monkeys that were messing up with people’s crops. There was a financial aspect to that. That kind of a proclamation needs to be subjected to county assembly verification. This is because if you look at the definition of statutory instruments in this Bill, it includes proclamations made by people who have been given certain powers by legislation in those counties."
}