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{
    "id": 1521342,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1521342/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 223,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Baringo County, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Jematiah Sergon",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I like the way you have mentioned my name. It reminds me of the days we were in campus together. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I also want to add my contribution to this Bill. First, I congratulate the Committee for a very well elaborated Report. Members who have contributed have also added much weight to the Equalisation Fund (Administration) Bill (Senate Bill No.14 of 2023) that came back to us. This gives the document good weight. Counties are beneficiaries of this Equalisation Fund, and Baringo is one of them. So far, we have been allocated some money, and four constituencies are benefiting in my county. Tiaty Constituency has got a sizeable amount of money. We also have Baringo South, Baringo North and Mogotio. These areas have dire needs in terms of basic amenities such as water and schools and, largely, in sparsely populated areas. This Bill also comes when we are trying to correct the colonial errors and bad administration that began in this country long ago, immediately after independence. Sessional Paper No.10 side-lined and gave much weight to some specific areas that already had resources that could build themselves and left out the more significant part of Kenya and, specifically, the largely sparsely populated area. Now that we are here, I reiterate what Hon. Moroto said: that leaders today and in the future will be keen on ensuring that the utilities and money allocated to these areas are well utilised. As the Committee has put it, they have given us a board-people who will be sitting and distributing these monies all the way to the counties. Senate is involved, including at the consistency level. These are the people who will determine which projects are going to be implemented using this Equalisation Fund. At the enactment of this Constitution, the Equalisation Fund had a timeline. Article 204 of the Constitution states that the allocation of this money was given a sunset of 20 years. Article 204(6) says: This Article lapses 20 years after the effective date, subject to Clause (7).” (7) Parliament may enact legislation suspending the effect of Clause (6) for further fixed periods of years, subject to the Clause (8) (8) Legislation under Clause (7) shall be supported by more than half of all the Members of the National Assembly, and more than half of all the county delegations in the Senate.” This is a very crucial Article for me because I am looking forward to another legislation to give this Fund another lease of life. After all, the Fund's disbursement and enactment was not started at the right time. There was a lot of push and pull between Parliament and the Judiciary that kept these monies for very long, and that is why they started to disburse the other day. If you look at the country today, I do not want to predict that in the future, more counties will benefit from this money. However, if you look at equalisation, it does not only mean semi- 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."
}