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"speaker_name": "Mr. C. Kilonzo",
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"legal_name": "Charles Mutavi Kilonzo",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to join my colleagues in supporting this Motion. In the last Parliament, I had the opportunity to sit in the Parliamentary Committee on CDF. Going to the nitty-gritty of the appointees, I am in agreement that the Minister has done a good job. Looking at the provision of the law, under Section 5(5), the Minister has addressed the issue of regional balance very well. With regard to the issue of academic qualifications and experience, again, the Minister has done a very good job. Looking through the CVs of the proposed appointees, we are proud to approve these as members of the Board. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, among the proposed nominees, we have registered engineers, fellows with Masters degrees in Education; holders of Bachelor of Education degrees, Masters degrees in Finance and Masters degrees in Business Administration. That is very impressive. What has impressed me most, unlike what the Government has done, is the way manner in which the Minister has addressed the issue of the youth agenda in these proposed appointments. Leaving out the Government nominees, we have 13 nominees eight of whom are below the age of 40 years. That is very good. Even among those nominees who are above the age of 40 years, only one, is 60 years old. The others are below the age of 55 years. This is my kind of a Minister. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the law requires that the Minister appoints somebody to be the Chairman of the Board. I was hope by the time the Minister laid on the Table the list of the nominees, he had decided who will appoint the Chairman of the Board. The sooner he does it, the better. He does not need to come to the Floor of the House to do so. The issue of gender balance has also been adequately addressed. Out of the nine nominees, under Section 5(5), five of the nominees are women. Although under Section 5(3), where we get the Minister himself to decide who to pick out of the four, he did not pick a single lady. Maybe, next time, he will consider one of them. April 24, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 679 Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in every organisation, institutional memory is crucial. In this particular case, we have been able to retain only two hon. Members from the National Management Committee (NMC). We did not want to spend a lot of time, as a Parliament Committee, arguing with the members of the Board, as was the case in the last Parliament. So, I would request that out of the other one person, if it is within your mandate, you retain somebody who was in the NMC. During the campaign period of the last general elections, the then Ministry of Planning and National Development advertised the position of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). This was a serious irregularity. In the first place, it is not the Ministry which is supposed to advertise that position, but the Board. So, we expect the Board to ensure that it recruits somebody who is qualified, so that his or her name can be brought to the House for approval. The advertisement for this position is very shocking. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the conditions given by the Minister in the advertisement for the post of the CEO was very shocking: \"That person must be a Kenyan citizen aged between 45 and 52 years.\" That was very unusual. It was as if the job was being tailored for a particular person. The CEOs of Barclays Bank, the Co-operative Bank, Stanbic Bank, as well as Government Permanent Secretaries (PSs), are qualified. There is nothing wrong with being 40 years old. You can be a CEO of the CDF at that age. The CEO of the institutions I have mentioned are managing much more funds. So, that is one of conditions we want removed in the recruitment of the CEO of the CDF. The youth were disappointed. So, we would expect the Minister, when addressing policy issues, to ensure that the biggest beneficiaries are the youth. More so, the policy of recycling retirees is not good. These are people who were in the Civil Service. They went home on attaining retirement age and they are earning pension. Why recall them to serve in the Civil Service? We have many qualified youths in all disciplines. When I went through these CVs, I was impressed. These particular ones are nothing compared to the others who do not have jobs. So, we would really laud the Minister. He has shown us the right way. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, going by what is happening in the new districts, we urgently need to have the Ministry and the Board to ensure that the District Commissioners (DCs), District Accounts and District Development Officers (DDOs) are trained. I had an interesting case where the DC summoned the CDF Manager and told him that procurement for the CDF would be the role of the District Tender Committee. These are the things which make it necessary for us to move very fast and put the Board in place, so that DCs and other senior civil servants at the district level can be trained on the CDF rules. We encourage project committees, whose membership is drawn from among the beneficiaries of CDF projects, to play the role of procurement, and not even by the Parliamentary Committee. So, it is also necessary for us to move very fast and constitute the Parliamentary Committee on the CDF. The CDF Board cannot work unless the Parliamentary Committee is in place. One amendment which was not brought on the CDF Act in the last Parliament relates to the fact that the last Parliamentary Committee on the CDF was actually doing executive work. We, Members of that Committee, felt that as Members of Parliament, we have no business doing executive work. So, it is crucial that this time round, that responsibility be removed from the Parliamentary Committee to where it belongs, which is the Board. Maybe, that is why most hon. Members lost in that Committee. Out of 11 of us, I think only two survived. So, it is only fair that amendments are made. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is true that there is no better law that we have made in this country, which can be compared to the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) Act. Despite the shortcomings, the CDF has been a success story. We had several delegations from countries like Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana, Sudan, USA and other countries, specifically to study 680 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 24, 2008 CDF. I am happy to say that a country like Tanzania has introduced CDF. That means that this is a good law. But a good law can easily be tampered with. My personal experience is when we went to Zambia and they tried to do everything. They tried to give hon. Members leeway to do everything. The CDF was buying cows, donkeys and everything as if the central Government had stopped operating. So, the CDF collapsed. We went to India and they told us that if we tried to do everything, it would definitely collapse. So, as much as we might want to do everything, the CDF is still young. Let us give the CDF time to grow so that, by the time we bring the amendments, it is already established. On the issue of account managers, it is true that some of them have not understood their responsibility; what they are meant to do. When the last Parliament introduced account managers, what it had in mind was that they would act as bookkeepers, the same as bank managers. Not more than that! But some of them seemed to have given themselves powers which were never intended for them. I think if you want a CDF manager, your committee has the mandate. You can employ a manager to run your CDF and not that one. That is an account manager. He is the book keeper. He should keep your ledger and other books. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is true that those who had the opportunity to serve in earlier Parliaments before the CDF--- You remember the days of \" siasa mbaya, maisha mbaya \". You will also remember the days when the Ministers would say: \"We will implement that project when funds will be available!\" With the CDF, I believe we have come a long way. Nevertheless, CDF needs to be increased from the current 3 per cent to a reasonable figure of about 5 per cent. Government spending is always concentrated in urban areas. The rural areas are always neglected! So, time has come for us to really address the issues at the bottom. I agree with my colleagues that we need to look at the issue of bursary. In the last Parliament, it was increased to 15 per cent only. That is still very low! A fair figure would be 25 per cent. What use is it to construct a school and not have kids going there because they cannot afford to. So, we need to address that as soon as possible. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}