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{
    "id": 358117,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/358117/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 50,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2884,
        "legal_name": "Alice Wambui Ng'ang'a",
        "slug": "alice-wambui-nganga"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Deputy Speaker. I think four minutes will be enough for me. Just like I was saying yesterday, I rose to support this Motion and my main reason for supporting the Motion was based on the fact that the Constitution spells out the functions of each level of Government – county government and national Government. The agriculture function is actually a function of the county government. I remember that many of us had reservations about this Motion as to whether county governments would be inheriting inefficiency but I think the best thing to do is to have a structured way of transferring the agro-based parastatals to counties. We need to come up with a policy issue which has to be developed at the national level on how to manage and restructure for efficiency. However, this is just a Motion and since the Bill will be coming up, I would urge my colleagues to indulge the Mover of this Motion and support it with a view to looking at it in a wider perspective when we finally get to develop a Bill to actualize it. Hon. Deputy Speaker, as I conclude, I just wanted to make some remarks which hon. Members have talked about and which is public debate; the issue of the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). I have heard many people and even the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) has even written to the Budget Committee of Parliament trying to allege that this Act is unconstitutional and one of the reasons they give is that the role of Parliament is supposed to be legislation and oversight. I do not know why we are forgetting that there is the additional role of Parliament, that is representation. They are deliberately leaving out that role and just restricting it to legislation and oversight. If you go to the dictionary, the word “representation” in simple terms means acting on behalf of someone and if you are acting on behalf of your constituents who elected you then it means you have to participate in development. You have to participate in asking and knowing the priorities that are supposed to be implemented and, therefore, you cannot divorcé a Member of Parliament from development activities. It is just impractical and it is even against the spirit of the Constitution. I actually participated very actively in coming up with Chapter 12 of the Constitution and even more actively in coming up with the Public Finance Management Act and I know there is absolutely nothing unconstitutional to set up a fund. The Constitution allows Parliament to set up any fund any time. Hon. Deputy Speaker, in conclusion, let it be known that CDF is not only implementing functions meant for county governments. Take the case of education and you will find that county governments are only given the role of pre-primary education. That is basically nursery and pre-unit. If you are developing a primary school in your constituency it is not the function of the county government. If it is a secondary school, it is not the function of a county government. Where will we get money to put up secondary"
}