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"id": 1067462,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1067462/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Isiolo CWR, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Rehema Jaldesa",
"speaker": {
"id": 601,
"legal_name": "Rehema Dida Jaldesa",
"slug": "rehema-dida-jaldesa"
},
"content": "women a political voice. Those of us who are elected, when we stand here, we have constituents behind us. The seats also took away the notion that women who are nominated are either flower girls, slay queens or girlfriends of party bosses. The BBI is proposing to take women back to the old days. That makes me sad. The BBI Bill says that the Senate will have one man and one woman. The current Senate is already past that. I can proudly tell this House my county of Isiolo elected a woman who competed with six men to the Senate. Likewise to Uasin Gishu, Nakuru and Machakos. Now when they say one man and one woman to the Senate, what will happen to the gains that we already made? Those are issues that make me have reservations on the BBI Bill. My second reservation is on shared prosperity. Much as a lot of counties are celebrating the proposal to devolve 35 per cent of national revenue to the county governments, which of course, I highly doubt will happen, because counties struggle to receive the current 15 per cent from the National Treasury... When you read the preamble of the Bill, it talks about very attractive things like equity, inclusivity, lack of discrimination and many other things. But the proposed Article 203N in the Bill proposes that the average amount of money allocated per person to the county with the highest allocation does not exceed three times the average amount per person allocated to the county with the lowest allocation. First of all, money allocated to counties is not for distribution to individuals. It is for service delivery and general development. The proposal of per capita allocation capping under Clause 50(a) in the Bill is against the spirit of common good for all Kenyans and negates the gains made in so far as the objects and purpose of devolution are concerned. Why am I saying this? The current revenue allocation formula is already discriminatory. Most of the parameters used are pegged on population. That is why most of our counties get very little allocations. With the current allocations, Isiolo County gets Kshs25,000 per person whereas Nairobi gets Kshs4,000. If you follow the proposed formula, my county will lose Kshs1.6 billion. If you tell me to pass this BBI Bill because I want to be in good books with the powers that be, all powers are local. Therefore, I have to fight for the interest of my people plus seven other counties that are going to lose money. The other thing that we are told by BBI promoters is the Ward Development Fund. If there is a county that does not have WDF, they need to send home all their MCAs. For the WDF to be established, we do not need a BBI. All we need is legislation in the counties. I can comfortably tell you most counties have WDF allocations that are more than what is proposed in the BBI Bill. The last issue, because I want to allow other Members to contribute, is about inclusivity. The BBI talks a lot about inclusivity, which is a good thing. However, you cannot build a united Kenya if a certain group within the society is not understood or accepted by their fellow citizens. Pastoralist communities and the minority, including my community, are discriminated against when it comes to issuance of Government documents like identity cards, passports and birth certificates. It is only in the pastoralist counties and amongst some minority groups in Kenya, including Muslims, where a child born in a Kenyan hospital, goes through the Kenyan education system, upon attaining the age of 18 years is subjected to a tiresome, dehumanising and ridiculous vetting process before obtaining identification documents. We are told that it is because some of these counties are neighbouring foreign countries. Isiolo County is said to be at the centre of this nation yet my people are subjected to vetting. We made a presentation to the BBI taskforce and I expected this matter to be addressed. Unfortunately, nothing has been said about it. I, therefore, have so many reservations against the BBI. During voting, I will vote “No.” Thank you. 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."
}