{"count":1608389,"next":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=json&page=136846","previous":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=json&page=136844","results":[{"id":1384861,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1384861/?format=json","text_counter":827,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Samburu East, KANU","speaker_title":"Hon. Jackson Lekumontare","speaker":null,"content":" Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I support the Bill. What was proposed here is how these authorities will be standardised. When these authorities are standardised, it does not mean that they will do the same functions. Each authority will have its functions. The primary purpose of these authorities when they were created was to look at the needs of a particular place and their requirements in terms of development. Indeed, some parts of Kenya are still behind in terms of development. Despite the fact that we have county governments, there is still no water in some areas. That makes these authorities important. It is true that although we want things to be equal in this country, we are not there yet. If you look at what the Constitution is trying to do, it created something called an \"equalization fund\" so that areas that were left behind are brought at par with the other areas. But what has it done if we are all saying these areas are still not equal? These authorities are very important to some of us. If you go to some parts of this country, there are no roads, yet in other places, there are roads all over. Therefore, we are better off going with these authorities and line them with the Mwongozo that will also guide all the departments and ministries in Government so that, at least, we have something uniform. If you look at the appointment of the directors or the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), the requirements should be the same. It should not be, for example, that in one authority they will need a director who has five years of experience and in another, a director who has ten years of experience, yet all these authorities are, in fact, at the same level. We need to align their requirements in terms of education. We do not expect to see some authorities requiring a director to have a master's degree while others have a first degree. That will make all of them standard so that their requirements are all the same. That will be very important. I really want to support the Bill. We should have a law that will bring all these authorities together. That is not to say that they do the same function. For example, we have the Northern Water Works Development Agency (NWWDA) – we used to call it the Northern Water Services Boards – that still does the functions it did before. If the Lake Basin Development Authority does something different, it will still… The needs of our places are not the same. This is a good Bill. Let us support it so that we can have a standardised law for all these authorities. Thank you."},{"id":1384862,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1384862/?format=json","text_counter":828,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Omboko Milemba","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":{"id":13328,"legal_name":"Jeremiah Omboko Milemba","slug":"jeremiah-omboko-milemba"},"content":" Hon. John Mutunga, Member for Tigania West."},{"id":1384863,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1384863/?format=json","text_counter":829,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. (Dr) John K. Mutunga","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"(Tigania West, UDA)"},{"id":1384864,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1384864/?format=json","text_counter":830,"type":"heading","speaker_name":"","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":":"},{"id":1384865,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1384865/?format=json","text_counter":831,"type":"other","speaker_name":"","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to this Bill. The Bill intends to consolidate laws relating to regional development authorities and provide for the establishment of powers and functions of regional development bodies. In my opening statement, that is already there. So, the question is: Why should we consolidate these laws, and why should we put all of them under one legislation? What shall we be trying to achieve? I want to share my The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"},{"id":1384866,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1384866/?format=json","text_counter":832,"type":"other","speaker_name":"","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"experience in agriculture. We consolidated eight different state corporations and formed one called the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA). We did not do what was supposed to have been done to AFA in order to make it functional and improve its efficiency and effectiveness. Today, AFA is blamed for having not been functioning optimally. Therefore, everybody is blaming AFA for their problems. What we need to do is to make these regional bodies work. Let us revisit the issue of forming regional bodies. First, we are, of course, calling them regional, and they are regional in approach. Second, they respond to specific and peculiar needs of the region. Third, lunch is not necessarily cheaper in this particular respect, and I will tell you why. These bodies will still have the boards. If we are putting them under one management board or board of directors, then we will be solving a problem of the numbers. I will give eight different issues that make me say they are different. One is the levels of resource endowment in these areas. Kenya is different. No region is like the other in terms of natural resource endowment and human resource endowment; they are different. The scope of coverage of these regional bodies is different. They cover space depending on their functions and what they took in at any one point in time. The challenges that these bodies address or confront are different. So, putting them under one umbrella does not necessarily make the challenges uniform. The development needs of those areas are different, just as diverse as their beneficiaries. The beneficiaries are different and they have different perceptions and perspectives of development. The levels of support based on, of course, the requisite interpretation of the specific needs for support for the area are different. It depends on the extent to which support is interpreted and communicated effectively. The other issue that is important for us to look at is the functions, which will basically be guided by the missions of the authorities. Each of these institutions has a mission and a vision. We are talking about institutions like the ENSDA, KVDA, LBDA, TARDA and the Coast Development Authority (CDA). When you speak about these institutions, you are talking about areas that have been identified to be peculiar and areas that need to have specific focus. One of the objects of the Bill is to standardise functions of the regional development authorities with consideration of unique areas of operation. You have to standardise then bring in the uniqueness of an area. You cannot standardise different issues because they are different. The law-making process in this country is standard. Every law that comes up with an institution adopts the same approach. It will define the terms, give the major title, and look at the functions and the formation of the boards. Everything is the same. What shall we bring in that is new and different? These institutions were established to manage specific regions and specific sectors. Let us leave them to continue doing that. Let us support them. Let me bring in the factor of county governments. We should not forget the fact that counties are coming together to form regional development bodies. They are forming clusters of counties so that they may define a bigger function that cuts across counties. So, we cannot restrict ourselves to a county when it comes to development because development cuts across a region. Water flows across different counties. Roads link different counties, and production goes across counties. So, even counties are realising the need to have a regional focus. Having one legal framework to talk about all these regions is not solving any problem. These institutions have responsibilities that include advising, managing resources, and facilitating projects. What we should ask ourselves is whether they are effectively managing resources, effectively advising, and facilitating projects. A specific example is Tana Water Works. I do not know whether it is peculiar to Tana Water Works or it is across the country. The approach that Tana takes is, for instance, if they want to drill a borehole, they will have two different contracts. There is a contract for abstraction, getting to know that there is water and test pumping for 24 hours. Then they go back to the procurement process and procure another contractor to The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"},{"id":1384867,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1384867/?format=json","text_counter":833,"type":"other","speaker_name":"","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"come and install and reticulate so that people can take water. Sometimes it takes up to four years to have some of these functions completed. I have three boreholes in my constituency which have taken more than four years to be completed. What we need to ask ourselves is whether the problem is the legal framework or the levels of support that we are giving these institutions. I find it very difficult to support this legislation. Thank you."},{"id":1384868,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1384868/?format=json","text_counter":834,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Omboko Milemba","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":{"id":13328,"legal_name":"Jeremiah Omboko Milemba","slug":"jeremiah-omboko-milemba"},"content":" Hon. Maina Mathenge, Member for Nyeri Town. He might be the last one to speak on this because, as directed by the substantive Speaker, we shall be moving to the Statements on constitutional amendments, but I will be speaking on that. For now, Hon. Mathenge, you may proceed."},{"id":1384869,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1384869/?format=json","text_counter":835,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Nyeri Town, UDA","speaker_title":"Hon. Duncan Mathenge","speaker":null,"content":" Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. While I like the spirit of this Bill, I am opposed to the letter of it. The thinking is right, but the idea is obsolete within the realities of the Constitution of Kenya 2010. When we look at the regional bodies, today's devolved units, which are a creation of the Constitution, have pointed to a new desire to craft new regions in terms of the regional economic blocs. Therefore, if we want to maintain the regional development bodies, we would be better off aligning ourselves with this new thinking. The Tana and Athi Rivers originate in the Mount Kenya region, but they flow all the way to the Coast and drain into the Indian Ocean. At what point do the Tana and the Athi River Basins end, and at what point does the Coast Region Development Authority pick up? Based on just that one example, we find that there is a lot of duplication and overlap and, therefore, a tendency to wastage. One other demonstration is that if you go to the Lake Basin, you will find…"},{"id":1384870,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1384870/?format=json","text_counter":836,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Omboko Milemba","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":{"id":13328,"legal_name":"Jeremiah Omboko Milemba","slug":"jeremiah-omboko-milemba"},"content":" Order, Hon. Mathenge. You have a balance of eight minutes to speak on this Bill, which we shall give you during the next session."}]}