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{
    "id": 1143744,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1143744/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 153,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Wilberforce Oundo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13331,
        "legal_name": "Wilberforce Ojiambo Oundo",
        "slug": "wilberforce-ojiambo-oundo-2"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I take this opportunity to sincerely thank the Chair of the Committee for bringing us to speed on the matter of disbursement of NG-CDF funds. If there is any Fund that is so dear to the people of Kenya, it is NG-CDF. If there is any fund that has made tremendous changes on the people of Kenya, it is CDF, especially in the education and security sectors. I am mostly perturbed by the allegation that arrears of 2021 have not been captured in the Supplementary Budget. Projects relating to that period had already been approved. Various Project Management Committee (PMC) accounts had already been opened. Many PMCs had actually started procurement processes for those particular projects. We could not start those projects without funds. There are so many stalled projects in various constituencies. A lot of school fees for children have not been paid. This House, through the Budget and Appropriations Committee, must move with speed, before they table the Report on the Supplementary Budget, to perform some miracle. They must find ways and means of getting the money so that we dispense of the matter. By refusing to release funds for this financial year, the Cabinet Secretary is simply taking Members of Parliament to the guillotine. You cannot stand before the electorate and tell them that you have been unable to conclude the projects that you promised them. You told them that you were coming to Nairobi and on Monday next week, you will be there and the contractor will be on site. They will still believe that the money has been “eaten” as it typically happens in the Ministries. The Ministry needs to come out very clearly and release the money so that we part ways on good terms and not go away having started wars with the National Treasury over a very straightforward matter that is enshrined in the law. A breach of the law is a breach of the law irrespective of which political divide you are on. Where the Cabinet Secretary has broken the law, this House has the means to put in place measures to cite him or her for breach of the law. We will do that through other means if we cannot raise numbers to start the impeachment process. This is a matter of “life and death” for those of us who intend to come back to this House in the next Parliament. Where I am threatened with theft, I will have to save my skin."
}