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{
    "id": 1194364,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1194364/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 336,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kanduyi, Ford -K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Makali",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The NG-CDF was initiated to assist the vulnerable and indigent children and communities in this country. It was initiated to ensure that we have access, not only to education, but to also set up the security apparatus that exists in our constituencies. The constitutional amendment that has been proposed is geared at ensuring that we ring-fence and protect the NG-CDF, so that it is not subjected to the judicial assaults that we have experienced. What benefits will accrue if this amendment is effected? We will ensure that there is certainty in law. At the moment, we are facing a lot of uncertainty. When I went home over the weekend to visit my constituency, many children were at home and their future is uncertain because they do not know whether they will be back in school or not. When I went back to the constituency, I found out that many other contractors had abandoned the ongoing NG-CDF projects because they were not sure whether the Fund was still in effect or not. If we can secure the NG-CDF in the Constitution, we will save it from assaults from both the civil society and the haters of Members of this House, who think that we want to get the NG-CDF so that we can run it as our pocket money or loose change. It is not lost on us that, at one time, the civil society called Members of this House “rats” and “ M-pigs” . We need to disabuse them of that notion by entrenching the NG-CDF Act in the Constitution of Kenya, so that it is saved from other bodies that want to assault it. Secondly, a lot has been said and the notion out there is that the NG-CDF is no longer in existence. The courts literally annulled the Constituencies Development Fund Act, 2013. The NG-CDF Act, 2015, is still in existence. One of the principal reasons that led to the annulment of the CDF Act, 2013 was lack of public participation. All the views that led to the annulment of that Act were cured by the NG-CDF Act, 2015. Therefore, the NG-CDF Act, 2015 is still in existence. I urge the movers and initiators of this constitutional amendment to go to the public and ensure that there is sufficient public participation, which will ensure that members of the public, the civil society and other players, are at par with this House to ensure that the NG-CDF is sustained. I have looked at the amendments that have been proposed touching on four specific funds, that is, the NG-CDF, the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF), the Economic Stimulus and Empowerment Fund and the Senate Oversight Fund. As was suggested by other Members of this House, my view is that we need to segregate all the funds. We had an experience with the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), which had very many good proposals, but just one item in it that caused the entire move to amend the Constitution to be thrown out. I suggest that, as we consider this legislative amendment, we consider segregating all the funds, so that we deal with each fund separately. This is so that we do not throw out the baby with the bath water. Finally, in the interest of time…"
}