 Thank you so much for keeping us company times for politics now. We look to the commission on revenue allocation to 47 counties. This very day the Senate will be having a special sitting to try to solve the problem that has been there. The president has called on the senators to make sure they solve this matter. So the majority speaker of the Senate, Samolupo, gives you a call on the meeting that will be happening this very Monday to see the allocation of the revenue, how it will be addressed. And there is a looming problem due to the alliances to different leaders. That is the president, the ODIM leader, Reloadinga, and the president Uhuru Kenyatta. There could be a problem on who to support on this particular issue. Send us your comments or questions to all our social media platforms at Y254 channel. I'm speaking to Sarah Sidlitzo. He's a political analyst at Richard Derrick. He's an aspirant MCA of Ugenya. Good morning, gentlemen. Good morning. It's good to have you here this Monday. Yes. And even as we look about, we talk about politics and what is happening, please someone tell me, do you want to see my youth or leave my office as a Ford, Sarah? See, I'm a youth and I'll speak also as a youth. In the reality of the matter is that youths have become an asset for hire, not to do the good, but just to do the bad. To push someone's agenda of few people's agenda. And then after they have pushed their agenda, they are never to be seen. So that has remained the role of the youth in the society. It is a high time that youths we should be focused. We should know what we want. We should fight for what we want because sincerely speaking, being hired just to go throw stones just because of political differences, then that is something that is backwardness. We need to style up. We need to grow. We need to be visionary because they say we are the leaders of tomorrow. And some of us, our tomorrow is today. We don't have another tomorrow. For those youths who are being used, it's high time, style up, do the right thing for your community. Because we formed the largest percentage. The population we have, the youths have the majority of numbers. These numbers are not used twice. If we can turn that energy into something that can transform our economy, then our economy will grow and we shall benefit. Thank you. Derek. For a long time, when it comes to politics, we will see the youth demonstrate. And by the way, is it our upbringing that hakihetu niku tupamawe, hakihetu niku andamana, hakihetu niku vandalize? Is it the same thing that will happen even to generations to come? Well Hilary, first of all I think we as the youth, we've been marginalized because during the campaigns you see people dishing out 50% over 100%. And this is the only way the youth can handle it. While the government is promising jobs, which other jobs apart from cleaning the roads till our leaders, not even leaders, our politicians, because in Kenya we have only politicians thereafter their own gains, till they realize that the youth can do better than cleaning the gutters and cleaning the roads. Till then there won't be any stability. See, they have to empower us. They say we are the leaders of tomorrow, yet in appointing people. They do appoint people 55 and above. What will happen to us the youth? What will we do apart from being hired here and there? They are writing off billions by mumiasuga kq. Why can't they write off billions to help by the youth? The youth who are jobless. Have the youth placed or have they used a position themselves to a position where someone can say, he's a good leader, let me mentor him. Are our politicians doing that? Absolutely not. Our politicians are not doing that. They only care about themselves. You see now leaders from Mount Kenya are running. They have seen that elections are coming. They are gearing up for the elections. They now realize that the youth are part of the nation. They should empower us as soon as right now instead of us struggling, hustling out here, because we are the youth initiative. What happened to Vision 20 Party? The youth could have been placed better in the society. That's true. There's something you're saying. We've been set aside as a marginalised community. You see youth as a community on its own. We need to be mentored and nurtured. But the question is, it's not a bad idea, it's a good idea. There are those youths like me and him who are here who need also to be nurtured, you know, the other. But you see, majority of other youths, wherever they are, they are not thinking the same line we are thinking. Because they are sycophants. They are mediocre. They are there, you are a youth who is here. Who brought you here. It's your own brain. Somebody not to hold your hand and bring you here. So it's high time we as youth need to take very serious steps in life. Nothing comes on a silver platter. So when you sit there waiting for a leader to come and give you, you sit, wait until you become old, waiting for that leader to come and give you. And he'll never come to give you, he'll always use you. Because if you are there to be hired and used, then why should not be hired? Even if your fellow youth will come and hire you, so that you go and make news for him. He campaigned. And I believe he used the same youths. He has smart people. He has smart people. He is sitting on the table discussing. He has other youths, 100 youths. He has 10 smart people on the table discussing on how to win the election. He has 100 youths somewhere in a corner who are there singing his name, shouting his name to make sure that the name remains relevant on the ground. So why do we do so? Because these youths are there for them to be used in that way. Because they have decided to be used in that way. Youths, it's about time you wake up. It is high time for the youths. And I speak as a youth. I'm not yet at five. I'm still a youth. And I speak as a youth. It's high time youths make radical steps in their life. Because if you don't make radical steps in your life, no one will come to make a step for you. You have your own fit. You have your own brain. Make a step in life. Okay? Alright, thank you. Let's now move to what is happening. And actually I've seen it has caused an uproar the commission on revenue allocation to counties. It has brought a problem because the proposal now goes for the numbers, not the land mass like it used to be. An example that many people are lighting is Kiambo. Kiambo has a lot of people. Compare it to Wajia or Garisa. Those big counties in terms of square kilometers. But now the proposal goes for the people who have, the counties that have majority of people will be given a lot of the bigger percentage. But it's causing a problem because we have the people in the Koso region. They support Baba politically speaking. And then we have a region that also supports Baba from the other side, let's say Kisumu. So the Koso region will reduce the revenue according to the proposal. Now do you think this will bring the problem to the handshake, Derek? Well certainly it will do. And this will require the Senate to soba up and make appropriate decisions. Not based on the political stance. Rather on the equity and fairness. Once they do that then everything will be sorted. Because right now counties like Garisa, they are marginalised. How do they expect the people there to survive? They have to do it as soon as possible. Or else the county operations will be stagnant. Siras, is there a looming problem? There's a very big looming problem. And at the moment, as we start, I don't want to look at and I don't want to peg the problem on the handshake thing. But I want to peg the problem on the house, the August house that is the Senate. And when I talk of the problem being the Senate I have already said the problem we have in this country is not the president, it's not the position leader. It's not any political leader. The problem we have in this country is the August house. Be it the National Assembly, that is the parliament that hosts the MPs and the Senate that hosts the Senators. This is where the biggest problem is. And it is a high time we shift our blame from the leaders, the president, and then remember we have three, in governance, we have three organs. We have the judiciary, the executive and the legislature. These are independent of their own. And executive sets place policies that should run the country. That the ministers and the PSS and any other way including the president. The judiciary ensures the law that is in place is well followed. We adhere to the rule of law. And if you don't adhere to the rule of law the judiciary is there. Then we have the legislature. The role of the legislature is to make the laws. The laws that are protected by the judiciary. So these are the arms of the government. But one arm of the government has decided not to play its role. They are supposed to play its role. But to be a signatory to the executive. So this is where things are going wrong. But when we have the legislature, that is the MP and the Senators doing their role they are supposed to do as it is and the constitution. Then we will not have all these problems. And having... I used to hear something they say one man, one shilling, one vote. That is what has brought up to all these things of distribution of resources to the counties. You cannot compare Nairobi County and Garisa County. You cannot compare Keambu County and even... Let me say Viga County or even Huma Bay County. They are not comparable. Why? Keambu's population is bigger. Why? It is also closer to Nairobi. There are people who live in Keambu but work in Nairobi. Because the housing in Nairobi is very little. That is why the population of Keambu is bigger. And as we grow, as we go by, the population of Machakos will also grow bigger. Why? The proximity to the capital city. Because right now even Keambu will reach a time they want to be space for people even to have housing. They will be housing problem in Keambu. So we will see Machakos is still a virgin place. So people will now be commuting from Machakos to Nairobi. Okay? Because of proximity to the capital city. This is the capital city. As much as we have other cities but this is the capital city that drives the economy of this country. Okay? Where the finance basket is in Nairobi. So everyone, there is what you call rural urban migration. So people are migrating from rural to Nairobi. I come from Tungoma. I come to Nairobi to do what? To get a job or do something or schooling. The essence of devolution was very simple. To ensure we have we first regulate the movement of people from rural to urban. Okay? If at all the senate which protects devolution could have sat down and looked into this in the better way. Then the migration of people from rural area to urban areas will be come. But it is still high. Why? We have not even worked on devolution the way it is supposed to work within the constitution. Manis have been allocated to the counties. Okay? But the problem is the oversight body that is the senate does not play its mandate well in overseiting the manis that have been channeled to the counties. The office of the budget OCO used to give reports on how manis have been spent. We only seen very few governors being called to the senate panel committee just to explain how they have used their manis. But you see no substantive report has come out to the public. I want you to hold on that thought of becoming there. Derek, do you think the new proposal now that has been put in place the senate will be addressing it? Do you think has the spirit of devolution? Well Hilary certainly he does but then what we are looking at here is we have to cushion the imaginary counties the allocation of funds. Like currently we were using the 2009 population censors and the poverty levels. In order to maintain equity the same has to be used. Or we have to use the one recommended by the commission. Because here we are looking at a situation whereby some of the senators actually will not cast their votes on this one because of the administration because of the various political terms. But then we have to look at the common monainty here. Because you see that the way he says here has said the oversight is what is here. And there is a lot of misappropriation of funds. Accounting like only having 10 ICU beds while the governor is building White House worth 75 million. Misappropriation of funds and the Senate is supposed to oversee that. If the Senate is not doing the mandate what do they expect? It's us the common monainty that will suffer most. So they have to sober up and they need to be fair and they need to be equity. In order for this to work out. And the sooner the better. You are mentioning about the misappropriation of funds and just to mention we have a few counties that will be benefitting from this new proposal. We have Kiri Nyaga, Baringo, Bomet, Westporkot Kaka Mega, Bungoma, Machako Tmbu. We will be some of the people benefitting from the new proposal because we have more money coming to the counties. And I remember from the first chair council of governor chair the former governor for Bomet. He was advocating and actually came up with the chama he needed that pesa machinani. We have COVID-19 to address we have counties that have not even matched to the 300 beds yet they need more money. We have money coming from the IMF and other donors. Now the government will be giving more money to these counties. Will we still experience the misappropriation of funds? We are here to experience a lot of misappropriation of funds. One, the money, remember the government give the counties monies. As it is stipulated in the constitution we have a world bank go to each and every county. These are all the world bank places in each and every county. Then we have revenue collection from these counties. Then we have also that those let me say like a country let me say for example a country like Denmark, a country like US may decide to go in a county to support it in one way or the other. Now what we should hear in the Senate is the discussion of monies because it's all about development in the area. Devolution was meant to see that this development in the counties what is found in the city should also be done in the county. That's why I mentioned rural urban migration to reduce rural urban migration. For example if the counties in western Kenya that is the north region could have seen that we have a city called Kizumu. If we can empower we can sit down as governors and as senators from this region and ensure that this full development in this area and then have some things in Kizumu that are replica to Nairobi we shall reduce rural urban migration from this region and mark you by reducing rural urban migration and empowering the counties what you are doing is also increasing your revenue collection. By increasing the revenue collection in your county you will be able also to have other funds on your adding to what the national government is giving you because when you go back on revenue collection Nairobi collects more because it is the city and also the population Kiyambu also may collect more because of the city and the businesses that people have set there so in businesses are set in the counties if manufacturing industries are set in the country in the county for example the Panpepa in Webuye if it was well refurbished if it was put into operational how many youths will be employed in that county a number of youths will be employed how many farmers will plant trees so that they can people can have the trees and send it to then how much will be collected as revenue then we go to the sugar companies because that is a sugar belt area we go to the sugar companies we have so many we have so many sugar companies in that region so if these sugar companies have been now they have started doing the operation the operation have started how many revenues are you going to collect and how many employment are you going to create we want to have youths tamaking in Nairobi going to industry area where we have a few companies because most of the companies have crossed now when the senators go on the floor of the house and they don't put their focus on such things then devolution is meant to fail devolution now we remain all about having governors who will only think of what will be of me come after my 10 year time elapses ok that is now what will remain on devolution we will only be having those regional kingpins regional leaders having those people who have ambitions of being presidents and they have done nothing in the county so if senators we will sit down and look into these things ok very well in using a microscope then we shall be safe we shall be protecting devolution but we are not protecting devolution because of the failure of the senate in oversighting so these are some of the things that we need to do and voters should also be informed know the roles read your constitution know the roles of your MP of your mc of your senator so if you know these roles they are surrounding the constitution then we shall be safe it is also our role we as the voters to protect what is ours now Derek he has mentioned about voters knowing the constitution you also mentioned of the poverty by 2009 census I am sure if this proposal goes through we will have a political statements of we need to increase our population just like they call for big numbers when it comes to voting we hear our region we are few we need to have numbers do you think it is the same thing that will now start happening to counties maybe the politicians in certain regions and when they speak calling for numbers you will understand is that what will happen there is a great school by the name of Thomas Sowell Thomas Sowell once said a politician is one person who will align his self interest seem to be like a national interest definitely we should expect more that because the type of politicians we have majorly they care about themselves but then the one inch is the one suffering the numbers the numbers matter more money to the counties we need numbers but then the counties are not utilizing the funds if they could have utilised the funds then as and he said here there could be urban rural migration because a county like let's say Kisumu Kisumu can take care of itself and the people around there but what are the youth doing there the youth instead they are migrating here look at a population like Madari it will come at time in 2022 whereby you will see politician flocking around Madari because of numbers because of numbers we need to empower our people the numbers matter yes but then it will only matter after the people we elected do whatever is needed of them we are running out of time we have you just mentioned the rural urban migration and the youth are there this new proposal do you think it will favour the youth in the spirit of devolution and even as you respond to that we have 22% to health the earlier interview I had here we talked about primary health do you think this one has everything that we need let me tell you one thing the proposals are being brought right now they are not better than the proposal we had in the earlier constitution the 2010 constitution they are not the proposals are being brought right now they are only centred on numbers ok and you see when you centre yourself on numbers fine also have a bigger perspective these people come after 5 years they use their numbers to vote me in or to vote this government in ok now after voting me in or so and so in what are my roles what are my responsibilities my responsibility is to assure there is good health in that area and good health is not all about hospitals hospital should be should have water clean water sanitization because that is under public health sanitization ok then good schools good schools also with good health ok there should be food because a child who goes to school hungry will not perform a child who goes to school hungry will be malnutricious and then we end up losing so the population will lose because there is no food to eat there is no better health there is no clean water live on electricity first of all but let us look at these basic things good health good education good water now we want to give our children better education we have facilities so if for example a county will go because we have ECDs we have and I have always said we have ministries in the county minister of education minister of what are their roles now if a county assembly will sit and discuss about a health within that county and come up with mechanisms of implementing the idea how many health centers will they have in a world enough to cater for a population when a county assembly will sit down and discuss a bill on education education does not only touch on the child so it touches on the teacher it touches on the subordinate workers it touches on the school amenities so if all these things are well discussed in a better way then we shall have a good society no matter how many billions will be poured in this country will be distributed in the counties but with poor management and poor oversight because we have a manager and we have an oversighter when all of them become poor these monies won't do anything they will end up in people's pockets alright now finally do you think this new proposal favors the youth the youth that we have said right here to wake up well the youth shall never be favored not unless we stand up for ourselves you see unemployment rates actually the president developed some kazi kwa jana initiative the youth are complaining they haven't been paid where is this money headed to till when our leaders will know that the youth the work not only we need to develop a system whereby the youth are favored we are the leaders of tomorrow and in order to address a problem you need to get to the root of the problem of which the government is not even trying to do we need to better our healthcare hospitals the way he said nutrition education when you look at the VAT on books the VAT is too high compare it with the betting of which the betting was scrapped off is the government favoring literacy or literacy once we are literate then we are headed somewhere see they need to favor the youth mostly alright and we are out of time but the senate will have to sit down pass the proposal or fail it we will wait and see whether it will be happening or not either way we sit here we point where there are problems and the proposal where there needs to be changes but anyway thank you so much gentlemen for coming and sharing your opinion apparently we had little time back home thank you so much for keeping us company they have been my guest Ugeniko Siaia right? exactly and political analyst Seiras Elite so thank you so much for being part of why in the morning I'll be seeing you later in the day with the updates for covid-19 and news highlights in the evening keep it white if I find you the rest of our programming many misderiva hilawe good morning