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"id": 89512,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/89512/?format=api",
"text_counter": 149,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Mudavadi",
"speaker_title": "The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government",
"speaker": {
"id": 84,
"legal_name": "Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi",
"slug": "musalia-mudavadi"
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the second point that I would like to take up very quickly relates to aspects of capacity, specifically the issue of clerks, treasuries and maybe some senior staff. Complaints have come through from a number of Members about the instability that is generated when there is either too much transferring or sometimes when others have entrenched themselves in certain councils for too long. We have adopted a policy within the Ministry that, unless in extreme circumstances, we expect that once somebody has served in a given area for, at least, three years as either treasurer or clerk, then that person would be due for movement, so that there is some element of somebody not overstaying and, at the same time, you do not disrupt the management of that particular institution. That is one thing that we would like to look into and enforce. I would also want to very quickly highlight and acknowledge the remarks made by hon. Imanyara on the aspect of the new constitutional dispensation. I did not dwell too much on it although I alluded to it in my speech due to limitation of time, but the Ministry is already setting up what would be equivalent to taskforces to start re-looking at all the laws relating to local authorities and regulating the counties, so that we can start working on Bills and legislation that will come to this House to facilitate the transition from the current local authorities regime to the new regime under the counties. This is a mammoth task, but we have exactly 12 months to do so for urban areas and cities. We have a limit of up to 18 months to do all the legislation that will relate to counties. This is definitely a very major task which will require a lot of resources. As I speak, we are in touch with the Treasury and also with some of our partners to lend us support, so that where we need to have stakeholdersâ consultation and consultancy, we shall have the resources to do it. I want to assure this House that it is our intention to make sure that we have delivered to this House those new legislations for debate way before we get to the 2012 General Elections. This is important so that people will know what they are entering into and what their desires may be, so that everybody is aware at the very beginning when it comes to these changes. I also want to state that the Ministry, because of the limitation of resources, is also in negotiation with the World Bank jointly with the Treasury. Here we want to have a Kenya Municipal Reform Programme where we shall get support for some of the major local authorities in our country to undertake some of the activities effectively. I will pronounce myself a little more on this later when we have concretized some of the issues. The last point that I need to highlight relates to what is shown on the Order Paper. I will be saying more about it when we come to the Committee Stage. The Order Paper reads a sum of Kshs2,628,870,945. However, in my remarks, I went beyond that and talked about Kshs17 billion. The specific Motion which the House will pass a resolution on is for a sum of Kshs2.6 billion, but I thought it was important that I also use the opportunity to highlight to the House the broader picture of all the money that is being channeled either through the Local Government directly or in transit for local authorities. I want to bring it to the awareness of this House that very specifically the amount that we shall seek is Kshs2.6 billion. So, I would like to apologize if that impression may have misled the Members on this matter. I want that impression to be corrected, so that we can know that the actual amount will be Kshs2.6 billion as shown on the Order Paper. It is important that the House knows all the funds that are involved in the Ministry of Local Government. I hope that clarification will help in allaying those fears. I want the Members to know how much goes to LATF, how much goes to SILO and all these other details. That may not have come out if I had just passed very quickly on the Kshs2.6 billion. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, a LATF impact study was done in 2007. I want to remind the Members that I have been tabling the LAFT Audit Report by the Controller and Auditor-General. I hope that Members will look through their pigeon halls. I tabled quite a number of these reports by the Controller and Auditor-General, which break down local authority by local authority and show how they have utilized the LATF funds. It is, indeed, true that some local authorities have done a good job with their LATF. However, there is equally a large number of local authorities which have not utilized their LATF funds properly. This is something that we are looking at as we receive the audit report to try and seal the loopholes where we see flaws. For instance, we are now communicating to local authorities that the threshold for each project under LATF should not be less than Kshs300,000. That is enough, at least, to build a classroom. Previously, people would break down the LATF funds to Kshs50,000 and Kshs30,000 and, therefore, that does not have the impact that is required. These are some of the changes that we want to put there. Secondly, I want Members to again familiarize themselves with the LAFT Act because part of the problem or the criticism is that not all market money goes to Development Expenditure. The Act is very clear. It says that some of the money shall be used to help local authorities settle their statutory debts and other obligations that they have. Part of it will also be used for operations and maintenance and a component of it will then go to capital expenditure. We are in negotiations and recommendations will be made by the Advisory Committee that it is now time to increase the facilities that would go to capital expenditure. We are in consultation with the Treasury because the Act is under the Treasury, so that it can be effected. Therefore, what would be additional resources for capital expenditure can now be put into law and we vary the percentages that have been laid out in the current Local Authorities Transfer Fund Act. These are some of the key points that I wanted to highlight. As I said, there were some issues which were very specific to constituencies. We will go to the HANSARD and try to respond to some of them. They include Kibiricho Market, Makuyu, Migori Bus Park, Oloitokitok and others. Lastly, under the solid waste management, the amount that we specified of Kshs150 million is little, but that is to help cover the counter-part funding for the African Development Bank (ADB) programme, which relates to Mombasa and Nakuru. It is definitely not enough to deal with solid waste problems in the entire Republic. But the major policy decision that we are going to undertake is that we want solid waste to be largely managed by the private sector. Once the Cabinet has approved certain policy position, this is the way we want to go. Equally, in urban areasâ"
}