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{
    "id": 1219099,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1219099/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 242,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mbeere South, Independent",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Eng. Nebart Muriuki",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "it will start to ensure that those who won do not perform. They will want to make them ineffective so that it can be said that they are useless and they should be removed from office before their term ends. That is what has been happening with the ND-CDF. Those who went to court to block it knew that this Fund is doing miracles in this country. They knew that anything that got down to mwananchi was through the NG-CDF, which is transforming the country. The essence of the litigations was to try and make the Government and the MPs that were elected ineffective. I support that we entrench NG-CDF, NGAAF and the Senate Oversight Fund in the Constitution so that we seal the loophole that people have been using to make this country remain backwards and under-developed just because they were pursuing their personal interests. Kenya is experiencing the worst time because of drought. If you look at the NG-CDF, many children would not have gone to school if the Fund was not there. The Fund has assisted many families to take their children to school when they had very little money to support their families. Most of the resources that families have are now going to food. We should broaden the scope of that Fund. There are things, especially health, which we cannot do with that Fund because it is under the functions of the counties. As we know, health is a very key issue in every family and community. The MPs find themselves in a tricky situation when they are asked to support health issues. We get requests to support heavy medical bills, buildings and equipping dispensaries, but our hands are tied because those are the functions of the counties. As we propose to amend the Constitution, we need to broaden the scope of the NG-CDF so that it covers most of the needs that affect the people that we represent. On the issue of ministers appearing before this House to answer questions, I support it. We know that when we refer Questions to Committees, they also have to refer the same Questions to ministries that have to communicate back to this House through the Committees. When communication is done that way, information is lost. If we have Cabinet Secretaries (CSs) appearing before the House to represent their ministries and engage us on whatever issues that arise on a one-to-one basis, information will not get lost. However, we cannot make the Committees of this House irrelevant. My proposal is that before a CS appears before this House to engage the MPs, he must of necessity engage with the Committee so that when answering questions before the House, then he has the full backing of the Committee. In other words, the CS will be answering questions on behalf of the Committee. He will not be engaging the Members of the Committee in the House. The Committee Members should be coming to support the CS fully aware of what he will present before the House. I support this proposal with a rider that CSs must fully engage Committees before appearing before this House. On the two-thirds gender rule, it has proved impossible to achieve through elections. So, if we come up with a mechanism of topping it up through a constitutional amendment, then it will give room for representation of minority communities. Minority communities are not just regional and in the counties. We can have minority communities within a constituency, a county and a region. So, if the two-thirds gender rule can be incorporated in the Constitution in such a manner that topping up of Members is allowed, minority communities will have opportunities to get nominations to come to this House. That way, everyone in the country will be fully represented in this House. I support that."
}