HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 1194342,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1194342/?format=api",
"text_counter": 314,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mwingi Central, WDM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Gideon Mulyungi",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this legislative proposal. Before I do so, allow me to congratulate you on your appointment in the Chairpersons panel. Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was introduced in 2003 through the passage of the CDF Act, 2003 by the Kibaki administration, at the rate of 2.5% of the national budget. It is, indeed, a game changer because it has created a huge impact in the villages where we come from. Although in 2015 the CDF Act was ruled unconstitutional by the High Court, in the same year, Parliament moved with speed to enact a new Bill, the NG-CDF Act to align it with the Constitution. Recently, the Supreme Court belatedly upheld the ruling of the High Court that CDF was unconstitutional. Although, there was no reference made by the Supreme Court to the current NG-CDF Act, 2015. Therefore, in my view, the CDF that was ruled unconstitutional this year has been moribund since 2015. The Act in use is the NG-CDF Act, 2015 and I believe it is here to stay. Rogue rulings like this one that was done by the Supreme Court and the High Court.... I think it is in order and very timely to introduce this amendment to safeguard the Fund in order to anchor it in the Constitution so that nobody can ever dare touch it. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I condemn in the strongest terms the activist who took the NG-CDF to court. He is currently among us in Parliament – Okiya Omtatah. In fact, if there is a way he can be denied oversight fund in the Senate, this is the best time to reward him because he is the one who has created this problem. This anchoring of NG-CDF in the Constitution is the best way to support the President in his bottom-up economic model. I, therefore, support the idea of including NGAAF in the Constitution and the Senate Oversight Fund so that our colleagues there also get some funds to oversee the counties. But as we do so, we need to take cognisance of some loopholes in the current Act which I came across during the implementation of NG-CDF Act. The current Act only covers projects in schools, security and sports, environment and bursaries, but excludes very important essential projects which touches on the lives of people like water, famine mitigation which is current, school feeding programs, roads, electricity and network connectivity. Sometimes, you go to the villages and people cry to you to do for them a mast for connectivity, but you cannot do it because NG-CDF does not allow you. Others are markets and health centres. I believe that this is the right time to include these things in the amended Act. The Act also creates an oversight committee where the Member of Parliament is the chairperson or the patron, but the MP is not facilitated with mobility. It is only the NG-CDF Committee which is facilitated with monitoring and evaluation fund. So, I appeal to the promoters of this Bill and Members of Parliament to include an oversight fund for the oversight committee where the Members of Parliament sit, so that when you go to the villages inspecting your projects, you are facilitated by the NG-CDF. The Act also distributed the Fund equitably amount all the 290 constituencies whereas we know some constituencies are more endowed than others, and others are very poor, especially in the marginalised areas. For example, there are some constituencies with only three secondary schools and a few primary schools as compared to other constituencies like mine which has 365 primary and secondary schools. So when the money is distributed equally, some 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."
}