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{
    "id": 1219907,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1219907/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 258,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Lari, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kahangara Mburu",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker for giving me this opportunity to also contribute and support the memorandum that was brought to this House by His Excellency the President where he made several proposals. First of all, is the two-thirds gender principle. We are all aware that the courts have already pronounced themselves on the issue of the two-thirds gender principle. Having not been implemented by the House, the Supreme Court ruled that Parliament should be disbanded. The President has brought proposals so that we can bring this matter to a rest. Of course, the President himself has already pronounced himself that he is going to obey court orders. It is high time we came up with a formula to implement the principle or to amend the Constitution and look for a different way of how we are going to ensure that we achieve that as per our Constitution. The other proposal is amendment to the Standing Orders so that we can bring Cabinet Secretaries to Parliament to answer Questions. We are aware that in the current system where Questions are asked through committees, we have seen situations where Questions have been asked, answers have been given, sometimes not satisfactory and Members who have asked the Questions do not have an opportunity either to ask supplementary questions or a remedy in case the Questions are not properly answered. Previously, when we had Cabinet Secretaries coming from Parliament, people were able to engage and Members would be satisfied or the Cabinet Secretaries would be made to ensure that they give proper and correct answers to Members because most of the Questions that we ask are asked on behalf of the people who have put us in this House. I support that we have Cabinet Secretaries here so that we get satisfactory answers and if we have issues that we want added onto the answers, we are able to get them. The other one is on the issue of entrenching funds like the NG-CDF and the NGAAF into the Constitution. As you are aware, severally, some people that I call busybodies, have been going to courts every other time claiming that the NG-CDF is unconstitutional. We are aware that in this country, the NG-CDF is the first formula that was put to test on the issue of devolution. It is the only fund that wananchi have felt. Today, we have money that goes to county governments. If you go to the constituencies and have a look at the projects that have been implemented using the NG-CDF and those that have been done by the county governments, the NG-CDF projects are more pronounced across the board. We have money that is meant for bursaries for bright needy students in the constituencies. If anybody wants to kick out the NG-CDF, he will “kill” Kenyans because they depend on the NG-CDF for bursaries and various projects that are done within constituencies. I believe it will be important if we cut off this jigsaw that has been going on every other time. Nobody should go to the courts because we will have ensured that we have entrenched it in the Constitution. We will serve our constituents without any disturbance. On the NGAAF, we have our County Women Representatives who run the counties. They are politicians and there are a lot of expectations from the electorate. When you go to constituents when they have an issue and you do not have this kind of fund, it means that you will not serve your people properly. We want the NGAAF to be entrenched in the Constitution so that we can serve our people well. We also have a proposal to have an oversight fund for both the National Assembly and the Senate. I believe that Senators and ourselves should not depend on salaries to move around. We are not in charge of the NG-CDF. It is managed by the NG-CDF committees. Without funding to move around for us to oversee the national Government and for the Senators to 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."
}