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"id": 240164,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/240164/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Maj-Gen. Nkaisserry",
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"speaker": {
"id": 192,
"legal_name": "Joseph Kasaine Ole Nkaissery",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I rise to support this Vote. Looking at the Ministry of Local Government's responsibilities, they are quite enormous. Therefore, the amount of money which has been allocated to it, to me, looks inadequate. However, we have a major problem in this Ministry in terms of the LATF. When we look at the LATF allocation of Kshs6.5 billion, that is quite a substantial amount of money which is meant to develop the local authorities. For the last three years and eight months that have I have been a Member of Parliament, I know that Kajiado District must have received a substantial amount of money through the LATF and Local Authorities Services Delivery Action Plan (LASDAP), but when we go to the ground, we hardly see any development. When I inquired from the county council, I was told that the allocation of this money is occasionally done at the Ministry headquarters. We want this money to be given to the local authorities just like the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) is being allocated. We want that money to go to the projects at the grassroots level. But, at the moment, tenders are offered with instructions from the head office. We would like the money to be allocated to the local authorities, which will decide which projects should be funded. It should be disbursed to the local authorities concerned. Mr. Speaker, Sir, when you also inquire about the LATF money, you realize that it is released some time after October and we decide how to utilize it in July or early August. Sometimes we end up getting this money at the end of the financial year or at the beginning of the next financial year. We want the Minister to streamline those shortcomings. Mr. Speaker, Sir, regarding the use of LATF money for development, I would like to recommend that, for the sake of health and fitness of this nation, each county council or town council should develop a stadium and a social hall for the local people. This is very critical for social activities in this country. So, the Minister should direct that LATF money should be used to develop those facilities. If you visit a majority of the local authorities today, you will hardly find any playing grounds for our pupils. Therefore, we want to ensure that the LATF money is used for August 1, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2483 that purpose. Mr. Speaker, Sir, you heard the Minister say that we are hosting the Africities Conference any time now and a lot of money has been allocated for this event. I would like to know what benefit this Conference will bring to Kenya. It is very important for us to know so that we can judge whether the huge amount of money being used is of any benefit to Kenya. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I would also like to echo the sentiments of one of my colleagues about the issue of elections in local authorities. These elections have become very acrimonious and they create a lot of unnecessary chaos. Most of the councillors are hidden from their home areas and as I speak now, some of them are hiding in a hotel in Mombasa; using Government money. We want to know whether the local authority is going to pay for their upkeep or whether the councillors themselves are going to pay. We cannot accept people to go, just hide and consume money meant for the poor. That money should be used to pay school fees for the very poor children in those local authorities. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I would also like to recommend that a small portion of the LATF money should be used in the poor towns and municipal councils for bursary, because we want to develop our people. It is the human resource that will develop this country; it is the human aspect and Kenyans that we want to develop. It is the Kenyans we want to give quality services to. There are some county councils which are very poor and the CDF bursary money is not enough to cater for their needs; like school fees. A good example is where I come from, Kajiado Town Council, which is very poor. So, we would like a small portion of that money to target the poor children within that council. Mr. Speaker, Sir, when you look at the Development Vote of about Kshs2 billion, we would like the Minister to tell us where the development is taking place. Where is equity? We are very inquisitive because we want to know. We want the Ministry to tell us how the Kshs2 billion is distributed, because this is the Ministry of Local Government, which goes all the way to the grassroots. The most under-developed districts should be given priority. I would like to tell the Minister, who is a very good friend of mine and we did not become friends in this House but many years ago, that Nairobi City is the capital city of Kenya. We would like the 42 communities of Kenya to be members of the Nairobi City Council so that we can reduce the acrimony in this council. It is very important that each community is represented in the council of the capital city of the Republic of Kenya. This is of paramount importance! Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you look at the salaries of councillors, you will see that they get peanuts! We should have a basic salary of, at least, Kshs50,000 up to Kshs100,000. If a council is rich, then the allowances can vary. But we should assist those individuals who are actually elected leaders of the people at the grassroots. So, it is very critical that they are given a basic salary of, at least, Kshs50,000 per month. We, hon. Members, take home Kshs30 million every five years. For the five years I am serving my constituents, I will take home Kshs30 million. Today, the Minister has told us that an individual in a Commission is taking home Kshs35 million for sitting for 200 days. It is unbelievable! Those councillors are working day and night to support the local people. This is a Cabinet decision which needs to be taken seriously and given priority. Mr. Speaker, Sir, on the issue of the environment, the most terrible situation which has happened to our country is the exposure to plastics. This happens in the local authorities and also in the town councils. I would like the Minister, by the time he walks out of this Chamber today, to issue a directive for each urban and town council to be cleaned. Just the other day, I took part in cleaning Kajiado Town. We want all our towns to be clean. A policy on polythene papers should be formulated by this Government because we are going to destroy our environment if we do not do that. 2484 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 1, 2006"
}