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{
    "id": 1582570,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1582570/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 556,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Homa Bay Town, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Peter Kaluma",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "schools. Only two of them were initiated before NG-CDF was put into place. That means we have 30 secondary schools in every corner and village. We continue to develop them and aim to have more primary schools. If you look at those schools in terms of infrastructure, they have classrooms, laboratories and libraries. Besides those, all the bursaries that facilitate students to be in those schools are from NG-CDF. Let me clarify to our people that there is no way the NG-CDF can go to the counties. It is money that is being split from the National Government’s share of revenue after the division of revenue. There is no way that money will go to counties because, by that time, allocation to the counties has already been done. We are looking at how to secure a share from the national Government. In this country, some people forget that there was a time when all the national schools were in Kiambu County. There was Alliance Girls High School, Alliance High School, Loreto Convent Limuru, Limuru Girls High School, Mang’u High School, among others. When President Moi came in, there were more national schools. A number of the schools in the Rift Valley did well. We have moved to a situation where schools can be established in each and every part of the country. Which schools did we have in the North Eastern part of the country? Which schools were in Turkana? The other day, there was a video of a pupil looking forward to being a future leader in this country, studying in the open air. Most of the Kenyans who are talking to the National Government to do away with the money should know that there are areas with disparities. This is largely because we have been sending money to the national Government ministries, but it goes to particular areas. This is especially during the era of Matiang’i, where we sent a lot of money towards school infrastructure. However, he took all infrastructure funding to his region and a bit to the North Rift. Schools like Kapsabet Boys High School are better than Homa Bay High School because that is where the Principal Secretary and the Cabinet Secretary were coming from. Across in Luo Nyanza, where Matiang’i was coming from, no single institution was getting school infrastructure. When we diverted the NG-CDF after the first challenge to the 2013 Act, we had a big issue. We must establish this Fund to derive from the National Government’s share of revenue within the Constitution so that the people who do not know the impact of this important fund to the society can appreciate it. It has been claimed that Members of Parliament should not be involved at all and we agree. That is why we are bringing this constitutional amendment so that Members of Parliament can do their legislative, representation and oversight role away from this Fund. I am in total agreement with my party leader when he says that Members of Parliament ought not be involved. That is partly what we are doing here. We are establishing this Fund so that Members of Parliament are not involved. In the NG-CDF Act, 2015, as amended in 2022 and later in 2023, there is no mention of Members of Parliament anywhere. All we do is derived from our powers under Article 95 of the Constitution of Kenya, to oversight those Funds generally. We are enacting this to remove the challenges we constantly have before courts by organisations which do not know the impact this Fund has had. When I first became a Member of Parliament, you would barely get a graduate in our villages. Due to the NG-CDF and the manner in which it has been applied by the constituency development committees. Back in Homa Bay Town Constituency, my biggest struggle now is where to get jobs for the many graduates. I have a situation where in each and every village and home, there is a graduate. Those are graduates who came from mixed local day schools which were built using this Fund. This Fund is doing things across the country. So, we are entrenching this as a means of decentralisation, which the Constitution says must be encouraged, and not devolution. This 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."
}