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{
    "id": 195879,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/195879/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 77,
    "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, there is no constituency which looks like the other. Every constituency is unique in its character and needs. I might need my Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) to buy donkeys to transport various items within the constituency. So, the Minister should not come and tell me that I cannot buy donkeys with my CDF money. I might come from Mandera and want to buy camels. Why not? You might be in Nairobi and you want to buy a bus. You go ahead and buy a bus! So, we should be left to decide, as people who know the heartbeat of our people, how the CDF will have the maximum and positive impact in their lives. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we want to support the Motion because we want the Board to be as non-partisan as possible. I think coming from the various organizations like the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, the National Council of Churches of Kenya, the National Federation of Agricultural Producers, the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Institute of Engineers of Kenya--- It has diversity. Even professional groups are represented. So, we hope that Board will not fall into the same trap of trying to load it over the Members of Parliament, like the Board that we have removed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we want to support the Minister of Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 in his supervisory role over the way we spend the CDF money. We are not saying that we should not be audited. We are also not saying that we should be left free to spend the money as we like without accountability. Please, come and check whether we are spending the money well. But in the identification of the projects and how we want to spend the money, please, leave that to the Member of Parliament. I think we have been elected and we are the ones who best know the needs of the people. Some people sitting in Nairobi, whether engineers or professors, however qualified, will never know the basic needs of the people in Ijara or Turkana. It 674 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 24, 2008 is the Members of Parliament from that area who are the greatest authority as to the needs of his or her people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to second this important Motion."
}