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{
    "id": 1012262,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1012262/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 401,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wako",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 366,
        "legal_name": "Amos Sitswila Wako",
        "slug": "amos-wako"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker for giving me an opportunity to speak on this very important Bill. One of the shame in implementing our Constitution has been this section on Equalization Fund. This requirement by our Constitution to have an Equalization Fund to cover marginalized communities; marginalized because of the history of those communities, indigenous communities, pastoral communities and so on. This is an Article of our Constitution that ought to have been implemented right from the word, go. The Constitution requires that 0.5 per cent of the revenue collected by the national Government must each year be paid into the Equalization Fund. Madam Temporary Speaker, maybe had this been operationalized and Equalization Fund given on a very regular basis, then it may not have been all that difficult to get the formula which took us may months, in fact, a year or two to arrive at it with a lot of emotion. If you listened to the contributions of those counties which were losing out, most of them touched on issues such as roads, access to electricity and health facilities. I remember very clearly, my namesake Sen. (Rev.) Waqo, saying that at one time she wanted to have an access to a health facility. It took her almost a whole day to get to that facility. Therefore, that was really giving a lot of motivation to fight for the rights to have funds. Madam Temporary Speaker, had this fund been operational on a yearly basis and so on, maybe the access to health facilities would have improved a bit in the last ten years. However, as it is, it is this Equalization Fund, which is supposed to provide for basic services such as water, roads, health facilities and electricity to marginalized areas. It is to bring those areas to the level where the rest of the country is. It has not been operationalized. Because the fund was provided for in the Constitution, even the Treasury could have given effect to this Article in the Constitution. It did not necessarily have to wait for this Bill to come. Now that we are where we are, it is good that we are having this Bill. Madam Temporary Speaker, when I was trying to get the figures, it appears that particularly our Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) here, every year for the last ten years, have been allocating funds to the Equalization Fund. However, those funds have not been disbursed. 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."
}