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{
    "id": 905024,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/905024/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 145,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 440,
        "legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
        "slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, Kisumu County was even worse because Gov. (Prof.) Anyang‟-Nyong‟o and Sen. Outa campaigned and shared the government together, but they do not see eye to eye at the moment. I am not faulting governors or Senators. The design and architecture of our Constitution was such that at all times, the Senator must oversight the county government, which includes the governor. Every time you raise the issues, they will definitely put you at loggerheads with your governor. A Senator who does not raise those issues risks the possibility of not being re- elected. I do not know how Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. does his. He disguises his way of doing it and that is how he survived and came back. You have to be careful when dealing with second term Senators, especially those who have aspirations to be governors. I am just digressing a little. The point is that relationships in county governments will not at all times be rosy. This is because the county assembly does a lot of oversight work. In Elgeyo- Marakwet County, for example, all the Members of County Assembly (MCAs) but two, were elected in Jubilee Party ticket with the governor. The other two are independent. There is no other political party. There is no minority leader in Elgeyo- Marakwet County. However, because of oversight issues, there is a lot of pull and push in the county assembly. There are those who believe that they should go this or the other direction. I say that confidently because I am also working to ensure that my county is properly oversighted. Madam Temporary Speaker, it is important that with all these issues that we are dealing with in counties, there will come a time when citizens will be very unhappy with their county governments. They will collect the relevant signatures and want dissolution. The one for Makueni County was about the county government wanting to dissolve itself. However, for this one, citizens may petition for dissolution of the county government. There may even come a time where a Senator is the one who will prepare the petition to dissolve the county government. The most important thing is for this House to record officially, the issues that come from there and find ways of acting on them via the relevant Committees. That way, the report will not get to the President and get lost. It must be transported to this House formally. Once it is given to us, we will have the opportunity to deal with the issues of dissolution of county governments. I am proud of the work that we are doing in this House and the progress we are making. We have sent a number of our colleagues to go for mediation on various Bills. I have been receiving updates and reports about their engagement with the mediation panels from the National Assembly. I thank Senators for behaving in a mature manner. I am told that the insults that are sometimes targeted at Senators even scare HANSARD officers who then do not know what to do when transcribing. Madam Temporary Speaker, let me tell Senators that we must maintain the higher road of leadership. Like Mrs. Obama said: “When they go low, we go high.” We should not give them the opportunity to go to a pig‟s fight, which leads to a lot of mud. We must always maintain the soberness that this House demonstrates when we engage on issues. Like St. Paul‟s said, we must acquit ourselves. In doing this, those people who look at us – our lives and testimony and read our HANSARD – will say The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}