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"id": 183108,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/183108/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. ole Metito",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Regional Development Authorities",
"speaker": {
"id": 199,
"legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
"slug": "judah-ole-metito"
},
"content": " Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving this opportunity to contribute in support of Vote 06, Ministry of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030. This Ministry, as it has clearly put it in 2934 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 22, 2008 its mission, is a very important Ministry. It has stated that its mission is to lead in policy formulation, co-ordination and implementation. I do believe it is for the purpose of resource mobilisation and allocation. Again, Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you look at the Ministry's mandate, it has clearly defined its mandate as:- \"To facilitate and co-ordinate national development process and planning. To provide leadership in national economic policy management.\" What I would like to say is that if this Ministry really stands firm in accordance with its mission and mandate, it is a very important Ministry. But I would like to say that it has not really done a lot previously. Maybe, it is because it used to be a department under other Ministries. For a long time, it has been combined with the Treasury or the Ministry of Finance. But I want to challenge the Ministry. It should come up with pro-poor policies that will address the contemporary issues that are affecting the Kenyan population right now. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we are experiencing high inflation, high cost of living, high cost of fuel and food prices. It should come up with structures that can actually put together our development goals. It should not really, as has been the case before, come up with development plans each and every five years. We discard or abandon them when we fail to implement them. We just give them another different name, but the goal is almost the same. Mr. Speaker, Sir, regarding the budgetary allocation, as we are discussing it today, the Ministry has really tried to streamline and probably allocate resources equitably to all the 146 districts we have in the Republic, especially in the Recurrent Expenditure - that is Vote R06. But I have a problem with Vote D06 - the Development Expenditure. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you look at that Development Vote, the Ministry has actually put in resources in not more than ten districts, mostly on the construction of District Development Officers' (DDOs) offices. I am happy to note that, out of only ten districts that have been earmarked for the construction of DDOs offices, my district, that is Loitokitok District, is one of them. It is actually one of the only three in the greater Rift Valley Province that has been allocated Kshs5 million for the construction of the DDO's office. Mr. Speaker, Sir, DDOs in the constituencies are very critical in terms of planning, co- ordination and also implementation of Government policies. So, it is good that they be equipped with the necessary tools, not just the offices, but also with mobility in terms of vehicles, so that they can really help us to come up with proper policies that can guide us in planning and co- ordination of our development goals. That is because they are really field officers. Mr. Speaker, Sir, even if the old 72 districts have offices for DDOs, the balance of 74 new districts really require offices for their DDOs. If only ten are earmarked for construction in a specific financial year, that is a very minimal number. Each district has been allocated Kshs5 million. So, that amounts to only Kshs50 million for the Development Vote in this Ministry. Mr. Speaker, Sir, other than the South Nyanza Development Strategy which is mostly donor-funded programmes in some of the South Nyanza districts, there is also the Central Kenya Programme which is, again, a donor-funded programme. In fact, very little has gone to the Development Vote in this Ministry. It is only the Kshs50 million that has been given to the ten districts for the construction of DDOs' offices. But, Mr. Speaker, Sir, let me come to the very critical point or objective of this Ministry, which is planning for resource mobilisation and allocation. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to come out very specifically on the issue of CDF. Constituencies have actually become the focus for development. They are becoming the principle units of October 22, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2935 devolution in terms of resource allocation. But this Ministry is also in charge of taking the statistics - the census. Mr. Speaker, Sir, as we heard this afternoon, the last time they took the census of livestock was in 1969. That is 40 years ago. I am sure even the livestock that were counted then are all dead. With regard to the population census they envisage to do, I would like to ask the Minister to be very fair and firm in research. At times, we find that the population index and poverty index rankings are not representative of what is on the ground. They should do proper national census and do it without any bias whatsoever. Mr. Speaker, Sir, you will agree with me that one of the things they consider when carrying out census is, for instance, land. They should not just consider the size of land available in that constituency. They should also consider the productivity of that land, whether it is arable or not. They should also consider the distribution of that land and establish how many people in that constituency own land. Other things to consider are the natural resources found in those constituencies. The Ministry should consider not only the availability of the natural resources, but also their trickle- down effect in terms of benefits to local people in that constituency. A good example is in my constituency. We have Amboseli National Park, which is one of the very prime natural resources in this country. The Ministry should go a step further and try to find out the trickle-down effects, or the benefits that the constituents are getting because of the existence of that resource. At the moment, I am very sure the local people are not benefiting from their natural resources. The Ministry should also consider the livestock in pastoral areas. They should not just consider the number of livestock found in a given constituency, but they should also consider the distribution of ownership of the livestock. They should establish how it is skewed among the human population of the constituency. A report which was done by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) some years back, says that 80 per cent of the livestock is owned by 20 per cent of the pastoralists. So, if you find that the number of livestock in a given area is very big, do not conclude that those people are rich because they have a lot of livestock. Even when they go to agricultural areas, they should not just consider the produce in the farms. They should also consider the ability of these farm produce to access the market. They should establish the status of the road infrastructure in an area. A constituency may be very rich agriculturally, but it could be a nightmare transporting their produce to the market because of bad status of the infrastructure in that constituency. Such infrastructure can render such a constituency really poor. So, it is important that this Ministry takes note of those considerations when they carry out the statistics that will be used to determine how resources should be allocated in this country. Finally, Mr. Speaker, Sir, on the issue of CDF Managers, we have Fund Managers who have been seconded by the Ministry to the Constituencies Development Committees (CDCs). However, we have a problem because, according to the CDF Act, they are not allowed to draw any allowances when they attend meetings or visit the constituencies to oversee implementation of CDF projects. So, Mr. Speaker, Sir, if it is not possible for the CDF Act to be amended at the moment, so that they can also be allowed to be part of the 15-Member Committee allowed to draw allowances, maybe, the Ministry could issue a circular, or a regulation, to ensure that the 3 per cent that goes to the National Management Board (NMB) or the CDF Board, takes into account the allowances of such Fund Managers when they attend our CDCs and when they oversee the implementation of projects. With those few remarks, I beg to support. 2936 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 22, 2008"
}