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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Motion. Most hon. Members who spoke before me congratulated the Minister for what they termed a well-thought-out Budget Speech. So, I would like to join them in saying that as far as that exercise is concerned he has done it very well. Perhaps, we can only ask him to make sure that the Budget is fully implemented. Our problem is always in the implementation of our Budgets. More often than not, we have had Finance Ministers eloquently presenting their Budgets, but the implementation part of it has always been the problem. The Most important thing about it is governance. Good governance is very crucial, because this Government was elected on a platform of zero tolerance to corruption. As a party in the Government, we can say that we have not done very well. I think a lot needs to be done, particularly in our judiciary. The judiciary is very weak. There are not many cases being determined by it. I believe that the Attorney-General (AG) will ask for more money, in order for him to have enough officers to prosecute cases. Many court cases are determined without any representation from the Government of Kenya. Some huge awards have been made by courts without the Government being represented. It is very important for the AG's office to be strengthened. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission has been operational for sometime, but we have not seen its impact. There is too much talk about corruption, but very little has been done about it. Corruption cases, some of which were investigated by some committees of this House, like the Anglo Leasing, and the Ndung'u Report, have not been acted upon. I would like to briefly address what the Minister termed as \"management of devolved funds\". This refers to the CDF, the Local Authorities Transfer Fund (LATF) and the District Roads Committees (DRC) funds. Hon. Members of this House should continue to demand that resources be devolved to small units in our country. This will reduce regional imbalances. These funds must be strictly governed by their respective laws. For example, there is a law governing the CDF. We do not want to see a situation where the CDF is increased at the discretion of the Minister. There must be a law to increase or decrease the CDF, which should be strictly followed. In that way, the Minister will not be telling us that he has increased it at his own discretion. In fact, we need to amend the law to increase the CDF to a minimum of 5 per cent. Such a law, once enacted by this June 29, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1739 House, should be strictly followed. That is the only way in which money can reach every corner of this country. I suggest that where there are weaknesses in our laws, we must address them. The DRCs at the moment receive Ksh6.5 million per year for each constituency. This money is very poorly managed by the District Roads' Engineers. They use it as if it was their personal property. It is a high time this matter was addressed. These funds must come under an authority that can oversee them effectively. On the bursary funds, the Minister should not have done what he did. He removed the bursary funds from the parent Ministry of Education and took them to the CDF. I wish to object to this move, and urge him to reconsider it. There is no point of removing monies from the parent Ministry and taking it to the CDF. He has not stated how much has been removed from the parent Ministry. The parent Ministry has the right structures in place to disburse bursaries. I think that is where this money belongs. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to touch briefly on taxation proposals, which are our main business today. First of all, I would like to make an observation on a very serious proposal by the Minister. This is the issue of limiting third party bodily injuries compensation by insurance companies to a maximum of Kshs3 million. This proposal is very dangerous. It is completely out of step with international practice in insurance. Why has the Minister interfered in this matter? On the same subject, he proposed that insurance brokers must remit premiums collected from clients to insurance companies within one day. This is not practical. Even hon. Kenneth, who is an Assistant Minister for Finance, knows this fact. I am wondering why the Minister has interfered with insurance policies!"
}