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{
    "id": 1581857,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1581857/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 506,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Baringo North, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Joseph Makilap",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise to support this constitutional amendment Bill to entrench the NG-CDF into the supreme law of our country. Let me, briefly, take you through our history as a country. Where have we come from? In the 1980s, the Government introduced the Focus for Rural Development Programme. What was its purpose? It aimed to equitably develop Kenya regardless of political affiliations. That programme had its challenges. We improved it after we realised that regimes could isolate parts of the country based on how people voted. Great men of this country - including Eng Karue and the former President, the late Hon. Mwai Kibaki - entrenched NG-CDF as a mode of developing the country equitably, regardless of how you voted in an election. Today, it remains the single Fund that is enjoyed by Kenyans across the board. This House of Parliament, before I came in, found it necessary not to involve Members of Parliament. Those people who imagine that Members of Parliament run NG-CDF should go and look for the Kenya Gazette. Who are gazetted at the constituency level, to run and manage NG-CDF? It is not Members of Parliament. The Gazette Notice is available for Kenyans. You will never find my name, my chairman’s name or the name of any Member of Parliament. It means the decisions on projects to be funded under NG-CDF are made at the grassroots level. As enshrined in Article 1 of the Constitution, all sovereign power belongs to the people of Kenya. They make the final decision on the kind of projects to be funded under NG-CDF through an elaborate public participation that is done in our sub-locations. That is why when we see people litigating against NG-CDF, we wonder whether they are products who went through school or their education using NG-CDF. Therefore, we want this House to rise and join the 98.5 per cent of Kenyans who endorse NG-CDF, NGAAF and the Senate Oversight Fund, so that they can be entrenched in the Constitution. There is nothing in the Constitution which is unconstitutional. Once these Funds are entrenched in the Constitution, there is nothing that will be referred to as unconstitutional by the courts. Whatever is in the Constitution cannot be unconstitutional. Let us go down memory lane. When NG-CDF started in 2003, taxpayers got a sigh of relief from fundraisers that Kenyans were doing. Members of Parliament, members of county councils and other leaders in this country attended fundraisers every weekend to build schools and chiefs’ offices. We, as Kenyans, got a sigh of relief because there was a Fund to construct 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."
}