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{
    "id": 1234667,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1234667/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 437,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, with that information in mind, we must reflect on the reason the Equalization Fund was established. Article 204 (1) of the Constitution talks about the Equalization Fund. In all our dealings, and I keep saying this, this House is not the Supreme Court, the High Court or the Court of Appeal. We must always look at the spirit of the law in as much as we look at the letter of the law. This money was meant to go towards counties and regions that have been marginalised as a result of Government policy and the most famous being the Sessional Paper No.10 of 1965. I have seen some of my colleagues who sat in the National Assembly, and I am glad that they are now here to see the reality of some of the decisions that they made. Let us be honest to the nation. It got to a point where everyone wanted to get a piece of this money. We moved from the original marginalised counties of 14 and today they are 34. We argued that there were pockets of deprivation everywhere. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it was argued that even if you went to Westlands Constituency and to that Ward where Runda is, that there is a slum called Githogoro. Therefore, there is deprivation there and as a result, Westlands should also be able to get part of the Equalization Fund. I see the Senator for Nairobi City County is very excited. You get an area like Karen where there is a lot of wealth, there are also some pockets of deprivation. You take the money that was supposed to go to Turkana, Mandera, Marsabit and Baringo and such places and bring it to Nairobi or Nyeri. We lost it when we made the argument that this money should not go through the devolved structures, but through the structures of the provincial administration, which, if we are honest with ourselves, has no place in Kenya's political and administrative architecture. We made a commitment as a country that the system of provincial administration that was meant to control, tame and contain black Africans, needed to have been reviewed and overhauled with the advent of devolution. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, what did we do? We took the county commissioner and put him right at the centre of decision making in deciding and implementing projects under the Equalization Fund. To make it worse, even us, the Senators, legislated ourselves out of this matter because at the county level, the chair of the committee that determines the projects is the county commissioner. Then, you will have the County Executive Committee Member (CECM) Finance for the county, the chairs of the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF), the NG-CDF fund managers. In my county, I have eight CDF funds, and so, eight of them will be sitting there. Then"
}