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{
    "id": 1085541,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1085541/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 156,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. David ole Sankok",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13166,
        "legal_name": "David Ole Sankok",
        "slug": "david-ole-sankok"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I was comparing the money that we send to the counties and the money that we have in the National Government Affirmative Action Fund and NG-CDF. It covers the 47 counties. The Equalisation Fund was supposed to cover only 14 counties but now, it is covering 34 counties. We do not know where they will release the money to. It is now almost covering the whole country. Before I was rudely interrupted by my leader, Hon. Emmanuel Wangwe, I was saying that there is a difference between poverty and equalisation. We are now using pockets of poverty in our different constituencies and counties to equate them with marginalisation. Marginalisation of the 14 counties that the drafters of our Constitution thought had lagged behind came as a result of Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965, where all our resources were invested in high potential areas. Those who were in Government that time thought that agriculture is our potential. They never thought that livestock is our potential, wind power is our potential and tourism is also our potential. That is why we have been marginalised for a long time. In our regions, a school is 40 kilometres away and a hospital is 100 kilometres away. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, because you are learned, I heard that you have done your PhD and you have done finance. I perused through your curriculum vitae and it is very difficult to get beauty and knowledge in the same person. What I was saying is that in those counties, it is in Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965 that we were supposed to be brought on board with other counties. With your knowledge, you know that it is population that follows development. It is not development that follows population. We are here in Nairobi not because of underground resources but because of infrastructure, because of good roads, because of good schools and even because Parliament is here. If Equalisation Fund can build and develop other parts of this country, the population will be offloaded from our Central Kenya and pockets of Western Kenya which are almost becoming very large slums because of constrains of infrastructure in those other areas. That is why I am supporting so that we can start implementing this Equalisation Fund not because I agree with the increase, not because I agree in principle on what they thought in bringing other 20 counties, but because we are 11 years late. Again, I also support that the administrative cost be reduced from having so many committees in counties and so on. We can simply say, because there are constituencies now that are involving the elected Members of Parliament, let our constituencies be the lowest administrative units because the infrastructure and the personnel are already in place. We can manage it the way we have managed NG-CDF because we have seen NG-CDF being managed very well. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we have heard that Kshs500 million has already been spent without any projects. Administrative costs in Kenya take a big chunk of money because those who are sitting on that money want to use it to benefit and enrich themselves. That is where corruption comes in. So, I plead with this House that we support and pass this Equalisation Fund and we start implementing it. As we go along, we will understand and start reviewing why there was need for the Equalisation Fund. Most of the 14 counties that the drafters of our Constitution thought that were marginalised, were actually marginalised because of the consecutive governments, the White Government and the African Government, that did not think that our underground resources and our other resources have potential. I support. 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."
}