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{
    "id": 1368614,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1368614/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 189,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kathiani, WDM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Robert Mbui",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "were put up under the CDF. If they had not been put up then, the county governments today would probably have not reached the level they are now. Therefore, the CDF has been a game changer. The most interesting thing to note is that the NG-CDF does not have a lot of money. Every financial year the NG-CDF gets Kshs100 million per constituency. However, if you look at what it has done in all our constituencies within the counties, you will be shocked. You cannot compare what has been done by the CDF with what has been done by the counties. It is incredible. I do not know the magic the NG-CDF committees do. As Members of Parliament, we are not part of the NG-CDF. In fact, one of the reasons that people keep going to court is that they believe that the Members of Parliament are the ones who control the NG-CDF. Members of Parliament are far removed from the NG-CDF. One of the things that we have proposed to make sure that Members of Parliament are not involved is to remove the Constituency Oversight Committee that is chaired by a Member of Parliament. That will make sure that Members of Parliament are no longer directly involved with the NG-CDF. One of the responsibilities of Members of Parliament is to oversee. So, even without the Constituency Oversight Committee, Hon. Members can go and look at what is being done and make sure that there is prudent use of resources in their regions before they can do that work at the national level. Hon. Deputy Speaker, this Bill seeks to amend various provisions of the NG-CDF Act of 2015, which has been challenged in court, and ensure we align it with the Constitution. It is also to ensure that there is no conflict at all between national and county government projects. One of the proposals is to ensure that this Fund is for exclusive use in national Government projects as spelt in the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution of Kenya 2010. That is to make sure that whatever this Fund can do does not in any way conflict with what Governors and county governments are doing so that there is no duplication. We will not put money in a project and the county government is also doing the same project. That has made sure there is complete separation so that the problem, which has ended up in court many times is averted. Hon. Deputy Speaker, other amendments have also been critical; one of which is to deal with the current situation of climate change. We were allocating money for the environment. You know that it is very limited when you call it environment. We are now looking at it from the perspective that the world and the climate are changing. What we called short rains a long time ago and the predictability of the short and long rains is no longer what it was. During those days, we knew there would be rain when schools were closing at a certain time. Nowadays, you almost cannot even prepare. We were assuming that there would be El Nino . The meteorological department has been having a problem. They say there will be El Nino and the following day they withdraw and say it looks like there is a change. We need to deal with the real issue. It is climate change. This Fund will help the national Government deal with that matter. As currently constituted, the NG-CDF Act of 2015 does not allow any recurrent expenditure. However, in support of the national Government programme of making sure that we set up ICT hubs in all the regions in the country and ensure there is connectivity, electricity is one of the requirements for these hubs to work. You cannot set up a project of that nature and leave it hanging. It has been done in the past. We tried the ICT hubs. They failed those of us who constructed and equipped them simply because there was no way the recurrent cost of running them could have been met. There was no money being generated. Now, the Fund is allowing the use of part of that administrative money to deal with the cost of electricity incurred by ICT hubs across the country so that we ensure our people are connected to use this system for their benefit. Hon. Deputy Speaker, there is an amendment to Section 34 that adds a new paragraph to ensure an amount of the total allocation to a constituency is not less than the amount allocated 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."
}