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{
    "id": 1211188,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1211188/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 185,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ruaraka, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. T.J. Kajwang’",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "a very young girl. Half of the Cabinet are young women with some being about 26 years old. That is what they do. Those countries do not have written constitutions to police people and tell them that they need to have so many women in parliament for parliament to work. You cannot police people through law. We need to have a flexible environment as we do right now and bring a legislation which can help and support women. Let us have an affirmative fund which helps women to be strong enough to be able to campaign, and people will bring them to this House without having to force wananchi through the Constitution to do this kind of thing. I speak plainly, and if you feel that I am going against the other gender, it is because of what the Constitution is saying. On the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) and those other things, I think the President is coming late because we are already on track. I wish we could close our eyes to whatever else is happening and go on track by what we started. There are proposals before us. The President can support us out there, be it on the roadside or wherever he can be but, as a House, we should close our eyes and process the legislation that we had before us in terms of NG-CDF and the proposed Senate oversight fund. I like the fact that we are now not talking about NG-CDF but rather Parliamentary oversight. The NG-CDF is not for Members of Parliament. There is no time a Member of Parliament can put his hand on the NG-CDF. The funds comes as a package that is guided by law on how they are supposed to be used. For the Member of Parliament, other than the fact that this is happening within his or her constituency, there is no other control one can give it. That is why we need money to be able to oversee the millions of shillings going to the NG- CDF. When we talk about parliamentary oversight, Members from the other House need to understand us – that, there is only one institution called Parliament. The rest are just Houses of Parliament. They need as much money in the Senate as we do here, for oversight. So, let there be a parliamentary oversight fund so that money can be availed to ensure that a Senator does his work as a Member of the National Assembly also does his work too. A Member from Migori, for example, should be able to do his work even though he is not a single constituency Member. That is how we will succeed; and it has happened. It is happening in South Africa. It is the system they have there. It is happening in the United States of America (USA). In the USA, money is given to a Member. It is availed to the constituency office so that when a constituent comes to your office looking for this or that, you are able to draw that money and thereafter, you account for it. It is also happening in Germany. You can go and research by just using google and you will find that Members in those countries have money to enable them accomplish what they are doing. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I want us to treat this Motion as a wake-up call but note that it is now a legislative proposal which we already have. Let us work on them. I thank His Excellency the President for thinking positively because the Legislature has already taken a leap forward. Thank you so much."
}