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{
    "id": 1120516,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1120516/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 346,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Halake",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13184,
        "legal_name": "Abshiro Soka Halake",
        "slug": "abshiro-soka-halake"
    },
    "content": "paralysed, and not approve the Equalisation Fund. The Fund was an answer to a historical injustice of a magnitude that should not ever be existing in the 21st Century is a country that is democratic and has a semblance of the rights of its people. I was just looking at some of the things; that in 2015 the President even offered an apology for historical injustices that the people of Northern Kenya suffered. I could pull out what he said and how the promises were made to ensure that within the constraints and provision of our Constitution, those inequalities will be rectified and fixed. Equalisation Fund is one of those initiatives that are strategic and are in direct response to historical injustices that have kept many counties outside and in the periphery of development and gross human rights violation. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the idea that we should all suffer and not all get the money if not all of us are getting it is really disturbing. I thank Sen. Sakaja for supporting us during the revenue allocation and the formulae discussion. However, that does not mean that now when other aspects of that fixing of the historical problems that our counties have faced, therefore, the idea that we either get it or we all lose it is really disturbing. We should get above that. The limited livelihood opportunities in some of these counties is glaring. Whereas an urban poor in Nairobi can access the neighbouring affluent areas for work, even if its very menial, and access industries in these places, that is not an option that is available to some of the people that live and inhabit those areas. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the promulgation of the new Constitution was precisely to cure these things. There are progressive elements in this Constitution, including the recognition of marginalised and minority groups, and the specific provisions of resource allocation and mechanism for bridging the inequalities. Article 27 on the Bill of Rights and Article 56 on minorities are all very clear. I cannot believe we are now going back to questioning the very Constitution that took us 20 years to make. All of these questions had been answered. Good or bad, below optimal or not, we have a good thing. The same way whether or not this Equalisation Fund is below optimal, there is no excuse for us to continue denying the fact that we must approve it, move on and learn from it. Perhaps, then as this House, we have the mandate to oversight it. Why are we not going to say that we will go with it because we do not want perfection to be the enemy of good? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Equalisation Fund as it stands today, if released to the counties, and now very few counties are outside of that ambit anyway, will give us opportunity to learn what is working and what is not. It will give us an opportunity to correct course if at all then this is not something that we can implement. However, to say that let us all be paralysed because we must all get this fund, is to defeat the very devolution that this House is supposed to ensure it survives. This House will be judged very harshly if every opportunity for devolution to be strengthened and historical injustices to be fixed is defeated on the Floor of this House. Why did we come here? We have a job. If the Equalisation Fund passes today and it does not do as per the provisions of these regulations or the Constitution, this House has the"
}