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{
    "id": 195877,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/195877/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 75,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Murungi",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Energy",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 93,
        "legal_name": "Kiraitu Murungi",
        "slug": "kiraitu-murungi"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to second this very important Motion. As the hon. Members and all Kenyans know, one of the greatest innovations that we have done in this Parliament is to introduce the CDF. Whenever we travel in this country, we are recognised and celebrated for having taken development to the grassroots. Very many villages now have dispensaries where there was none before. Very many villages now have secondary schools where there were none before. Many students are even going to school using the CDF bursary funds. This Fund has really assisted in the grassroots development of this country. You will recall that we started the idea of this Fund, which is unique in Africa and in the world, when we were in the Opposition. At that time the Government had a policy of not developing Opposition strongholds. Indeed, there was a Minister who stood where I am standing now and said: \"So long as you are not in KANU forget development\". So, we had to sit down and find how we could develop all the constituencies where we came from without discrimination. I was happy that this Act was unanimously passed by hon. Members. We travelled far and wide to pick ideas, and the closest we came to CDF was in Zambia, where the Member of Parliament was given some funds to develop the constituency, but Zambia had no rules to regulate April 24, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 673 the expenditure those funds. So, at the end of the year hon. Members would report many projects which were non-existent, and it was found out that they just used to share the monies received with their campaign managers and other people. So, this was a great improvement, because there was an Act of Parliament with very clear rules of accountability and how this money should be spent. The reason why we brought this amendment was because the National Management Board, which was there, became a \"super Member of Parliament\" to the extent that it controlled the projects that we wanted to do in our own constituencies. It arrogated itself the power to reject proposals from Members of Parliament on how they wanted to spend money in their constituencies. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I do remember my own case; we have been running a village bank in South Imenti for the last ten years. This village bank is supposed to meet the banking needs of the poorest of the poor within my constituency. But when we put in a proposal to fund that bank, so that it could continue supporting youth groups and women, the proposal was dismissed by that Board as a merry-go-round. They said that they did not fund merry-go-rounds, but that was not a merry-go-round; it was an established bank, with a manager and we have a track record of serving over 3000 customers. So, we felt a lot of pain that a Board, not even appointed my Members of Parliament, had the power to decide how I could spent my allocation of CDF within my own constituency. So, I hope the Minister for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 will not fall into the same trap of coming to vet projects which come from Members of Parliament, on the ground that they have broken that rule or another. We want maximum flexibility given to Members of Parliament to develop their own constituencies."
}