Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1572049,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1572049/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 270,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Teso North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Oku Kaunya",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I wish to add my voice to this debate. I support the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill (National Assembly Bill No. 4 of 2025) to entrench NGCF, NGAAF and the Senate Oversight Fund into the Constitution. I want to emphasise one important thing that NG-CDF has done in the country. It brought inclusivity and equity. It has provided resources to communities like the Teso and marginalised constituencies like mine. I want to give an example of when I came to Parliament in 2017. Teso North Constituency had no government training institution or college since independence. Through NG-CDF we established a committee to work around the clock. It has established four institutions that have over 4,000 students such as the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) with over 700 students. The students walk from their homes in the villages to the colleges. Therefore, the cost of training has gone down. Even poor sections of the community can access education. We have a Technical Training Institute (TTI) with over 3,000 students. We established a National Youth Service institution operationalised through NG-CDF. We have also established a campus of Kenya Institute of Highway and Building Technology (KIHBT). Without NG-CDF many marginalised areas in this country would not have developed. Therefore, entrenchment of NGCF in the Constitution is key. It will ensure that there is inclusivity and equity in development. Secondly, the entrenchment of these Funds will alleviate poverty in affected areas. Children who are unable to access education because of poverty are provided with bursaries. Only NG-CDF bursaries are felt on the ground. So, we need to enhance the bursaries allocation. Again, I can give the example of my constituency. More than 2,000 students have been fully sponsored by NG-CDF to undertake different courses in various colleges. More than 30,000 students have benefited from bursaries and are able to remain in school. Apart from sponsorship of students, NG-CDF has improved the infrastructure of schools. I support the idea of entrenching this Fund. This is because Kenya has been experimenting development strategies so as to progress. At Independence, there was Sessional Paper No. 5 on African Socialism and its Application to Development in Kenya. One of the things we were trying to experiment then was to see how best we could achieve equity, development and distribution of resources as well as political devolution. We talked of regionalism. Over time, in the 1980s we had 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."
}