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{
    "id": 1514223,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1514223/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 606,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mathare, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Anthony Aluoch",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. Let me lend my support to this proposal to entrench NG-CDF into the Constitution, taking into account that the recent court's pronouncement is such that by June of 2027, the current NG-CDF will cease to act. Apparently, the court did not take into account the collapse that would occur and the void that would ensue as a result of the expiry of NG-CDF, if we did not either amend or entrench it in the Constitution. Luckily, if we entrench this in the Constitution, we will be following one of the edicts of the court when it decided in the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) case, when it said that there is no such thing as an unconstitutional constitutional provision. I support that we put this in the Constitution so that we then now find what excuse the court will have, or the activists, or the counties, to want to say that the NG- CDF is unconstitutional. Let us reflect back on what the NGCDF is a victim of. In my view, the NG-CDF is a victim of central government bureaucrats. When we passed the Constitution 2010, we intended to devolve funds down to the lowest unit. The lowest unit currently, as we know, is the constituency. I want to disagree with the court that the constituency is not a unit of development. The units of development are down from the national Government. They go to the sub-counties. If you want to call it constituency, so be it. If you want to call it a sub-county, it is a unit of development. You can only go lower at the ward level, which does not exist now. The county governments do not recognize it and so, the lowest unit we know is the sub-county and the constituency. Hon. Temporary, the NGCDF is also a victim of the county governments. The court cases that have been sponsored, not only against it but also against the Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF), are sponsored by the counties themselves. There is a misnomer among county governors that money that is taken away from NG-CDF would result in more money into the counties. That is a fallacy. The Constitution divides funds between the national and county governments, and even if money is taken away from the NG-CDF, it would still remain centralised. For this reason, among others, I support entrenching this into the Constitution so as to put this matter to rest once and for all. I support."
}