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{
    "id": 1368799,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1368799/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 374,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I want to assure Members, because of the concerns that have been raised, this Bill at least guarantees that you shall never get money allocated for NG-CDF that is less than what was allocated in the preceding year. For instance, if each constituency gets Ksh170 million this year, irrespective of the revenue collected, we are safeguarding that you cannot get less than that next year. That means that the NG-CDF amount can only be incremental year-on-year. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I beg to reply and thank Members. I hope that after this short recess of one week, we shall come back and progress to the Committee of the whole House and Third Reading for the Bill to become an Act of Parliament. As I said in my contribution, it will, in a big way, address many of the concerns that have been raised in courts by many of the petitioners. I also spoke to them to understand that the NG-CDF is not for the Members of Parliament. This is a Fund of the national Government to deliver services to Kenyans who reside in our counties, constituencies and wards. Therefore, it is indeed an important Fund. It has changed the entire landscape of our development projects and programmes across the country in a big way. There is not a single part of this country you will go to and not identify projects funded through the NG-CDF. That is unlike county governments because there are areas around the country where people do not even know devolution came. Almost 13 years after devolution, people have yet to reap its benefits. They have not seen even an Early Childhood Development (ECD) classroom or a dispensary built by their county governments; not even a borehole project. However, in every corner of this Republic and all the 1450 wards of this country, Kenyans can show you a project funded by the NG-CDF. Indeed, this is the way to decentralise development in our country, ensure it is equitable and it is rolled over the entire country irrespective of one’s political affiliation. You have seen the agitation amongst Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) for the autonomy of their county assemblies and the Ward Development Fund, something that I truly support. In some counties, we have governors who imagine that MCAs should be acting as their lapdogs that sing songs of praise to them. When they do not, those MCAs suffer from governors not rolling out development projects in their respective wards. That is why we must also support the enactment of the Ward Development Fund to go to the ward level. Many of our Members here will tell you that we are under immense pressure from residents because MCAs are not able to do roads and dispensaries or roll out very simple projects in their wards because governors are not allocating resources to them. I beg to reply, and allow me to take this opportunity to wish all Members who are here and those who may have left ahead of us a very restful one-week working recess. I know many committees have indicated that they will be sitting throughout the week. I know the NG-CDF Committee will be working, especially on any proposed amendments. The Departmental Committee on Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations is in the vetting process. Many other committees of this House are working within and out of the precinct of Parliament. Allow me to wish all of them a good short recess and hope to see all of us back to this House next Tuesday, but one. With that, I beg to reply and request that you now invoke Standing Order 53(3) and defer the putting of the Question to the next time we sit. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
}