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{
    "id": 886221,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/886221/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 347,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "We understand how politicians process their thoughts. Since they made campaign promises to the people that voted for them, they must take something tangible to the people. The argument is always that they should give something that is commensurate to other parts of the county. On many occasions, MCAs of my county struggled to pass an Equalisation Bill but they were not able to do that. With this kind of legislation, it will be possible to do that. This Bill needs a bit of polishing. I know we will do that later in the Committee of the Whole, when we will present our proposed amendments for Third Reading. For example, in Clause 9(a) it is provided that a project will meet the criteria for funding if it is a community project. We need to define what a community project is. Sometimes it is not a big issue when we pass some of the legislation but later when they are being applied, somebody could see an opportunity to be mischievous. During public participation, people can be incited. We have provided for public participation but sometimes when a county government wants to have its say on a particular project, it may not be difficult to do that. One of the things they need to do is to ensure that they have the right number of people to push a particular agenda during a meeting so as to pass a project as a community project. I see the importance of Clause 12(2), although my colleague from Wajir had different thoughts. I deliberated about this with my colleagues at the committee level and we saw its importance. Clause 12(2) states that:- “If for any reason a project is cancelled or discontinued during the financial year, funds allocated for such a project shall be reallocated to another project to be implemented in the same ward.” We do not want to have mischief by county governments. You have seen how our county assemblies operate. Sometimes you will find that a group coalesces with the governor, another one with the women representatives and yet another one with the Senator. We always have political factions. One group can ensure that some projects are not funded despite the budget having allocated resources to the same. In my opinion, Clause 12(2) is the silver bullet that will ensure that come rain come sunshine, it does not matter what a county governor thinks about certain people living in a certain ward. This is because even if they cancel projects where monies have been allocated, they will still be duty bound by law to ensure that they start another project in the same ward. That is extremely important because we should not open development to the vagaries of politics. We understand that politics is transient in our country. Today it could blow this way and tomorrow that way. Therefore, that particular Clause is important. Clause 13 under Part IV on Reporting and Oversight is also important because it speaks to something that we have always wanted to achieve as a House. I know we still have a challenge but as a committee, one of the things that we have endeavoured to do is to define the actual percentage of a budget that a county assembly may interfere with. That has always been the desire of our committee because I was also a Member of the Committee on Finance, Commerce and Budget during the previous Parliament when we wanted to push it to 10 per cent and we made our proposals. Unfortunately, when the Cabinet Secretary for Finance sent his regulations to the national Treasury, that was not properly included. I am aware that the PFM Act is currently under review in the National Assembly and I know definitely it will come to this House. When it comes, these are some of the things that we may want to include. We should define the extent of maneuver by the county assemblies."
}