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{
    "id": 978523,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/978523/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 238,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": "importance. At the end, we do not have to necessarily resolve it either way. So, the arguments that I will present in terms of this particular Motion are my strong views. The first point of consideration is not to make these arguments in the abstract. Legally, a person cannot make arguments in the abstract. We must deal with the concrete situation. I would like to ask a concrete question: What is the status of Nairobi City County Government? Was it not dysfunctional right from the beginning? How did we get there? This is the only county that does not have a deputy governor. In the constitutional arrangement and the structure of devolution, that position is a constitutional requirement. In fact, the Constitution states that, the deputy governor is the deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the county government. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are talking about a situation where there is no County Executive Committee (CEC). You cannot talk about them because they come and go. As I speak, there is no substantive officer in charge of finance because he is going through vetting. That is the status of Nairobi City County. Talking about Nairobi City County, what has been the status of the county assembly for the past two or three years? For a long time, we did not have a substantive Speaker in the county assembly until about two months ago. This is the status of a city that is not just a regional hub. In fact, the shame of it is that, Nairobi used to compete with Johannesburg, Cairo and Lagos. Now, in the region, Dar es Salaam is catching up. There is a hub coming up in Kigali and of course, Ethiopia is surpassing us. Nairobi is a city that has attracted international interest. Outside the international territory in New York where the United Nations (UN) has its headquarters, there are only four other UN headquarters. These are Geneva, Vienna, The Hague and Nairobi. Nairobi is not just an ordinary city. I do not want us to trivialise this issue that we are asking a lot of questions which are neither here nor there because those questions can be answered by looking at the critical situation in Nairobi. There are three options that we have that are provided in the Constitution and the County Governments Act. One of them is to dissolve the Nairobi City County Government. That is another possibility in dealing with the problems in Nairobi but will you ask the people from Makueni how long that process takes? It can be challenged in court. Even when the Governor was willing to have Makueni County Government dissolved, it did not work. The other process is impeachment which can take another two years. Nobody has the certainty that that will resolve the problem. The problem with impeachment is that it comes as a political concern more than the question about governance and provision of services. The Constitution addresses this question very clearly. One of the things that you cannot amend in the Constitution is the principles, aims and structure of devolved units without a popular initiative."
}