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"id": 183433,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/183433/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Mudavadi",
"speaker_title": "The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government",
"speaker": {
"id": 84,
"legal_name": "Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi",
"slug": "musalia-mudavadi"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I rise to support the debate on the Vote of the Ministry of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030. My contribution will focus, basically, on two areas. The first one has to do with the population census, which is scheduled for next year. Over the years, the question of the census in Kenya has always been controversial in the sense that we have had many occasions when either the quality of the census becomes doubtful or it is assumed some political elites tend to use the census to manipulate certain things, which could either include allocation or resources or even registration of voters. This is an issue we need to look at very closely. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is not an unfounded remark. You will recall that at one time, when the late Dr. Robert Ouko was the Minister for Planning, there was a census that was conducted, whose results were never made public. For very strange reasons, the results of that census were never made public. Up to this day, the data that was collected at that point in time is only available for use by technocrats in very selected formats, but it has never been made public. These are issues we need to take very seriously. I want to encourage the Minister, Mr. Oparanya, to make sure that this process, which will be undertaken under his watch, will become different from the programmes of population census that have been taken in the past. This is critical because, if resources are going to be distributed in this country, and the figures reflected for any particular region or for any constituency are not accurate, there could be a serious miss- allocation of resources in our Republic. This is something we must move away from, if we are talking about equitable distribution of resources. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the issue of population census will be very pertinent October 21, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2851 on some of the constitutional issues that Kenyans are talking about. Kenyans are talking about an increase in the number of constituencies. They are talking of boundary review and realignment. All these activities are pegged on the aspect of population. In some parts of Central Kenya, there was talk about one-man, one-vote, that was being articulated in a number of political fora. Clearly, what this means is that although population is one of the critical criteria for determining the number of constituencies in this country, of course, there are other aspects, including geographical, terrain of the area, et cetera . One thing we should not go wrong about is the fact that we should have the aspect of accuracy about our data. We should make it very comprehensive. We should be able to use this forthcoming census to be able to also collect other data that we will feed into our health, agricultural and education programmes, and make them more meaningful and more effective for the good of the general populace of this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, therefore, I want to encourage the Minister and his team to make sure that we have an impartial process. He should ensure that we have a very solid and professional unit that will work on the census. They should also put in place, if necessary, a mechanism that would make population census-taking much easier and more efficient for the future. This is also an issue that will obtain into the question of registration of persons. So, they should work very closely with the people who will be dealing with registration of persons, for the purpose of accuracy and for us to know the actual population we hold on our land and how it is distributed. So, I urge hon. Members to support this Vote. If the Minister wishes to strengthen the law, to make this undertaking even more robust, I would encourage him to bring to this House the necessary amendments even before we get to next year. If it is necessary for us to tighten some legal aspects to help him execute this mandate more effectively, I am sure, this House will be very happy to support such aspect. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the second element I want to focus on is the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). A number of hon. Members have spoken on this aspect. In his Vote, the Minister is asking for more than Kshs10 billion to support the CDF. This is, indeed, a very popular Fund. We all know that it is, perhaps, the most serious mechanism of Central Government sharing revenue with other entities of governance. A sum of Kshs10.1 billion can make a big impact. We would like that CDF to grow. However, in order for it to grow, and for us to justify the growth of that Fund, in terms of additional resources in future, just like the way we have the Local Authorities Transfer Fund (LATF) under the Local Government, I would want to encourage the Ministry to tighten the systems. They are working on it and, of course, there are new experiences every other day, but we would like them to tighten the systems so much so that the issue of misappropriation of resources does not arise. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also want them to tighten the systems, where you involve the planners on the ground and the District Accountants. There are a number of Members of Parliament here, particularly those who may be taking over from previous Members of Parliament, who may be having a lot of difficult with either the district accounts and the district planners, because they have vested interests. Some of these people do not want to let go. They are actually sabotaging processes where some Members of Parliament want to streamline the process of the CDF in their respective constituencies. These are critical areas. If tomorrow we opt to go to a devolved system, and we want to be able to disburse more resources to the grassroots level, then it becomes clear that it will be necessary for the management of these funds, at the local level, to be strengthened even more. The other thing that I would like to encourage is that even if we start as a practice, the question of the threshold of what kind of programmes or projects can be supported by the Constituencies 2852 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 21, 2008 Development Fund (CDF) is absolutely critical. Sometimes, if people refuse to see reason, you have to make it law. We are experiencing scenarios where people are insisting on very small amounts for CDF projects. These are amounts that have no meaning and will have no impact in the respective communities. I think it would be important that within the law, a minimum threshold to say that, for instance, a CDF project should not be less than Kshs300,000. Why do I use Kshs300,000 as an example? Perhaps, that is the kind of amount that can at least put up a meaningful classroom in any part of the country today. However, we find situations where the CDF committees - although they are being inducted - fall prey to the idea of giving Kshs50,000 for a project and we know very well that Kshs50,000 is a lot of money to an individual, but when it comes to a school, Kshs50,000 is peanuts. It may not have that desired impact in improving the various communities. So, these are some of the proposals that I would like to put on the table. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Ministry of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 is key in terms of giving direction for this country. Basically, the Vision 2030 revolves around this Ministry. The roads and projects planned are all pegged on the vision documents that come from the Ministry. It is extremely central. I would like to encourage the Ministry to take up the recruitment of more economists and planners in different cadres and help various line Ministries. One of the things we are suffering from in the line Ministries is lack of enough economists. The bedrock of economists is usually the Ministry of Planning, National Development and Vision 2030. They, therefore, need to build some capacity here and post some of these people to our Ministries so that they can provide that important technical input to help the Ministries formulate proper policies. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is also through those policies that we shall cease to have contradictory policies coming from various Ministries. In some issues, there must be a lot of coordination. If it is trade or liberalisation, a lot of consistency is required. When this is not done, then the Government seems to be contradicting every step they make. I beg to support."
}