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{
"id": 933301,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/933301/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
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"speaker": {
"id": 13131,
"legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
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"content": "Last week, I received a report from the Controller of Budget (CoB), that as of October, 2019 Nairobi City County had not used a single shilling of the development budget of the Financial Year 2018/2019. The amounts that have been used are those of recurrent expenditure. So, the citizens are demanding to known what the billions that this House dutifully allocates to Nairobi City County – and other counties as well – are doing to better the plight of our residents. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the county government has failed in delivering critical services enumerated as county functions. As I had listed earlier, they are health, water, sewage and sanitation, estate and feeder roads, physical planning, Early Childhood Education (ECD) among others. Currently – and Sen. Kasanga will tell you – the construction industry in Kenya is at a standstill because the sector does not only provide employment to thousands of Nairobians, but also creates a lot of movement on our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Planning Department in the Nairobi City County has been shut down owing to suspensions. This has led to inordinate delays in building approvals. When will these officers be replaced if they are guilty? If they are not, when will they come back? Our concern is not the individuals because Nairobi City County cannot be held hostage by individuals, but all departments need to work as they should for the benefit of this county. Mr. Speaker, Sir, Members of the County Assembly (MCAs), who ideally form the first line of defence and oversight, are operating in a hostile environment. A non- functional executive, nepotism, bullying, intimidation, physical assault, destruction of property and violence, as we have seen, has left MCAs with their hands behind their backs, limited on service delivery to their electorate. In fact, even now, a section of them are doing a press conference to counter the one we did earlier, yet if you go to their wards, they cannot point to the actual development that is being done, yet they should play an oversight role. Among the questions that we will be seeking this House to look into through a Statements from the relevant Committee at the right time, and also through the Auditor- General are:- (1) Whether it is true that Nairobi City County has engaged services of 6,000 youth, who are not under any contract but are paid through the county suspense account. The said youth are also sometimes misused politically to cause mayhem and inflict injury on any dissenting voice whenever the county leadership feel threatened. Incidentally, these same young people the other day came to me because they had not been paid for a long time. (2) Is it true that the revenue collection system was single sourced or is it the county doing it? I praised the county earlier when we got rid of the Jambo Pay. I always had doubts of that contract, but we were not getting rid of Jambo Pay to open the route for another funny company. We wanted our county to build capacity to collect revenue. (3) Is it true that there have been contracts on refurbishment of hospitals that have been single sourced or the insurance cover has been illegally procured, and the incapability of Nairobi City County to operate is occasioned by among others, the fact that the executive is not properly constituted as envisaged in law? 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."
}