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{
    "id": 1065468,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1065468/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 97,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suna West, Independent",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Peter Masara",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13486,
        "legal_name": "Peter Francis Masara",
        "slug": "peter-francis-masara"
    },
    "content": "Changing a Constitution has never been easy anywhere and those who believe that the status quo is benefiting them will always come out to oppose what people want. The BBI Amendment Bill, 2020 has brought a lot of good things to us. Clause 11(a) on shared prosperity in this proposed amendment Bill is going to help us because the State will be mandated by the Constitution to promote the blue economy. I come from the lakeside and this will mean that fishermen around Lake Victoria in Nyanza and Migori in particular will have their interests taken care of. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to speak to Clause 50, which seeks to amend the Constitution to increase the percentage of money to be allocated to the counties from 15 per cent to 35 per cent. I have a background of the former local government where we used to receive small amounts of money through what used to be called the Local Authorities Transfer Fund (LATF), which changed the areas where councillors used to work to enhance development of the people. The NG-CDF has improved development in all areas of Kenya. If you walk around every constituency, you will find signposts of projects done using the NG-CDF. Clause 11 talks about how people messing with public money are going to be penalised. If the allocation of funds to counties is increased from 15 per cent to 35 per cent, then inclusivity will be realised in the sense that every area, be it in Turkana, Mombasa, Migori or Baringo, is going to enjoy the fruits of the national cake in terms of development. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to speak to Clause 54 on the Ward Development Fund. As at now, the ward representatives operate at the mercy of the governors. If you do not sing a good tune which the governor entertains, your area is not allocated money. But now moving forward, all ward representatives will receive 5 per cent of the money allocated to their counties. It means that each village will receive money from the national Government through the Ward Development Fund (WDF). With the WDF entrenched in the Constitution, MCAs will perform their oversight role. They will be able to point at areas where the governor is not doing well without necessarily being punished for doing that. I will also speak to Clause 63. It seeks to introduce Article 237A to create a Youth Commission. For the first time in the history of this country, we are going to create an independent commission which is going to cater for the interest of the young generation of this country. The youth form the biggest percentage of the population of this country, but when people discuss development interest, nobody thinks about the youth. The Bill talks of mainstreaming the youth perspective in planning and decision making. For the first time, interests of the youth are going to be mainstreamed so that they participate actively and independently in decision making. Paragraph (c) of the proposed new clause says that the commission will advise the county and national governments on design, implementation and evaluation of policies and programmes to secure sustainable livelihoods for the youth. At the moment, the youth do not know how to live because they do not have hope. When this Bill is passed, the county and national governments will be forced by the Constitution to look at how the livelihoods of the youth can be sustained. I want to remind this Parliament that women have their commission which supports them. Persons living with disabilities (PWDs) have those who support them and teachers have a commission which supports them. For the first time, the youth are going to be given an opportunity to be part and parcel of decision making. If you look at the composition of that commission, four members must be youths. It means out of the six members, the majority will be youths. That means decisions that will be made by this commission will favour the youth. 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."
}