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{
    "id": 1211545,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1211545/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 255,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Saku, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ali Raso",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise to support the Memorandum by His Excellency the President. Kenya is a unitary State and the President is the Head of State. By dint of the Constitution, the President is the most powerful person in the land. It is we the people of Kenya who have given him those powers. He can use his powers to get things done by hubris or manoeuvre his way to get things done. The President, who was also a Member of the National Assembly representing Eldoret North for many years, has decided to approach this House and say: “Hon. Members, I think there is a lacuna in our Constitution and we need to think differently and get things done.” He is approaching this House to have a conversation. He tried to extol at length how useful the Fund is, its importance and that without the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF), we, as Members of Parliament representing single-member constituencies, are sitting lame ducks. For that reason, it is incumbent upon us to realise that we cannot have our cake and eat it. The President has touched on the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF). The honourable ladies in this House will approach their constituents who are a larger number than the single-member constituencies that many of us in this House represent. A lot is expected of them including NG-CDF bursaries, taking mothers and fathers to hospital, taking orphans to schools and even sometimes buying wheelchairs. That takes a lot of resources and it calls for strengthening of that particular office if we must make something out of it. To fix the conundrum of the NG-CDF, the President has said that we should put it in the Constitution so that the vicious litigants year-in, year-out, will not take Parliament to the courts. It is the same on the issue of the Senate Oversight Fund. Senators oversee 47 counties that are given about Ksh370 billion annually, which is a lot of money. Without oversight and anybody raising a finger, that appears to be money going down the drain. We all come from counties that are raking in billions of shillings year-in, year-out, but you do not see where the money goes. Somebody must look at those resources and tell the citizenry that something is disappearing. In the absence of giving Senators those powers to go around and engage with county governments and the citizenry, we are throwing good money after bad money. It must stop somewhere. The only way this can be stopped is by Senators not going to kneel down before Governors, but by them appearing to be watchkeepers on behalf of Parliament. On the issue of gender, for those who have been in this august House long enough, our women colleagues have approached us severally to talk about this issue of the two-thirds gender rule. But we have sat on our hands and yet the reason why we have increasing numbers of women Members of Parliament is because we have given a few, through affirmative action, the hands upon which they are able to stretch the muscles of other young women leaders. 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."
}