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{
    "id": 1194649,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1194649/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 203,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Bondo, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Gideon Ochanda",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. Kiswahili was for the morning session. I think those who are speaking it now could be out of order. Hon. Temporary Speaker, there are a number of things I want to touch on. The first one is that we cannot gainsay the place, role and benefits of the NG-CDF as at now. The NG-CDF is older than the Constitution that we are talking about. I believe that there was a problem or a very big oversight in terms of not including the NG-CDF in the Constitution of Kenya, 2010. Unfortunately, this must have been looked at in a very different way because the Constitution gives Parliament space to create public funds, in the same way that they are talking about. The NG-CDF could be one of those funds. In a similar manner, Article 176 (2) of the Constitution gives the county governments a privilege that ought to have been given to both the national Government and county governments, either as a principle or as a provision where resources need to touch every part of this country as reasonably and effectively as possible. That is not happening with county governments. The NG-CDF would have sealed that kind of loophole in a bigger way. Therefore, we cannot gainsay its benefits at the moment. The biggest problem is the safety of the Fund. How safe is it? The benefits are enormous and are acknowledged by everybody. However, haters of Members of Parliament and Parliament come up from time to time thinking that the Fund is Member’s Fund. Because of inherent hate, they constantly come up with things against the Fund. For the Fund – and not Members of Parliament – to be protected, there is the proposal to anchor it in the Constitution. I support that in totality. Next is the whole issue of strategy. This Fund has gone through a lot of smoothening. The legislative part of it has gone through a lot of cleaning. It has regulations in tow. There were many weaknesses before but those weaknesses have, over time, bean addressed. It is not like any other fund. So, for purposes of strategy, we do not need to put the NG-CDF together with other funds at one go. The other funds are fantastic and they should exist. However, 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."
}