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{
    "id": 1277965,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1277965/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 330,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Irene Mayaka",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "are not being given the special consideration that they need. Those Funds have helped many people in this country. I will give you an example of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund. There is a young man from Homa Bay County called Dr Maxwel Okoth. I do not know if you know him, Hon. Temporary Speaker, because he comes from your county. This young man currently has seven hospitals. He started with one. He was a beneficiary of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund and his hospitals even offer specialist services, including theatre. People need to hear some of these success stories. I have heard many Members say that people do not even know about the Funds. The nature of Kenyans and humans in general is that when they hear about the success of something, they want to be associated with it, or to experience it. So, I encourage the Committee that even as you strive to give us observations of some of the things that are not working, let us also hear some of the success stories because it is only from the success stories that we will encourage more people to take up these funds. I am waiting for the day the Hustler Fund will be part of the audited funds because I am yet to hear of any of its success stories to date. I hope there is one, if at all. I have looked at the gaps that have been indicated by the team. I have gone through them, but I cannot even finish because by the time I got to the end of Page Five, I had already identified spillage of almost Ksh200 million. The accounting is not being done properly. I totally understand where Hon. Eve Obara is coming from when she speaks on this issue. I worked in the banking industry for almost 10 years and I get a culture shock every time I get reports that people are not doing their jobs as they should. Why are we paying officers monthly salaries if they cannot deliver as they should? Why do we not have performance contracts for everybody, including clerical officers in Government offices? This way, we will hold the officers accountable. Allow me to give you an example from my previous employment. In the banking industry, if you ever got a red on an audit report, it meant that that year you do not get your bonus. So, everybody strove to ensure that they performed to their best because they did not want it to pain their pocket. Maybe that is the direction we should take. The moment it pains someone’s pocket, then they begin to take their work seriously. It does not surprise me that even during our campaign period, the Azimio presidential candidate, our boss, Hon. Raila Amollo Odinga, would always say confidently that he was sure that should he be the president of this country, he would ensure that there is a social fund of Ksh6,000 for everyone. Whenever he was asked where he would get that money, his response was always that he has worked as a Prime Minister in this country, been in the Government and knows there are gaps. If those gaps are filled and we do not have any spillages, then there is money that we can give to people as social protection fund. I challenge the Kenya Kwanza Government to strive to ensure that all these reports from the Auditor-General are implemented. For example, the Auditor-General should give a response within three months to show how we can recover some of these funds as has been recommended in this Report. This way, the Government will not need to tax Kenyans more or ask for extra money from Kenyans in the name of a Housing Levy. The problem is that there is too much spillage in this country. We have too much money out there. The first solution on getting more funds should not be to ask Kenyans to go deeper into their pockets and be taxed more. My challenge to the Government is to look into all the State departments and Semi- Autonomous Government Agencies (SAGAs). All these reports that come from Parliament and its committees recommending that the Auditor-General needs to give an audit of the gaps and the spillages should be adhered to. If the Auditor-General feels that the time limit she has been given is not sufficient or that she does not have enough staff, she can let us know. There is a backlog. Apart from this Report, other reports have been presented here in the past weeks. I can assure you the work is cut out for her. I would like to tell the Chairperson that when we hit three months, she should ask the 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."
}