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{
    "id": 368467,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/368467/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 23,
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    "content": ". This unga cannot take a child to school or take care of somebody in a hospital. So, this young man just thought that when he became a supervisor, maybe he would be able to get more unga than the rest and send his child to school. This is a sad situation that this country needs to look into. There is high level of poverty in this country; more than 50 per cent of our population lives below poverty line. How do we assist them so that everybody can come up? Recently, the Jubilee Government came up with the issue of the laptops. Many people agree with it and some are criticizing it, and saying that instead of these laptops being given to schools, the money used to purchase them should be used to pay teachers. I think we have our priorities wrong; maybe the children of those who are in towns and urban areas are able to access laptops. But poor children cannot access laptops. They have never seen them, leave alone being able to access them. This, to me, is a good Government project that will assist those within urban areas to catch up with children in the urban areas. I think the issue that we should be looking at, especially when it comes to devolution is how we are devolving functions, so that everybody, including the poor, is able to benefit. We read in the media recently of governors who are even budgeting for Prados, airports and their offices, instead of looking at structures. How are we going to devolve funds, especially of the model Constituencies Development Fund (CDF), so that our people in the rural areas access quality education. We should identify children in poor families, so that they can benefit just like any other Kenyan. I think most of the governors have got the issue of devolution in the wrong way. Devolution means the functions at the national level being sent to the grassroots. It is the functions that they are supposed to budget for, so that devolved functions can be delivered for the benefit of the common man. These functions can be performed easily and can be accessible to our people. When they sit down and budget with the thinking that now they have powers, which they exercise like mini presidents in the country, then I think we go the wrong way. This House has a responsibility to oversee the money being devolved to the county level. In this country, the CDF has done a lot. It has been able to assist children from poor families although in a small way. I think in future we should look at how we are going to be able to increase this amount, so that instead of distributing it in small amounts of Kshs.2,000 or Kshs.5000 to each child, we are able to sustain the education of these children in such a way that they are not sent home. They should be able to get their secondary education, college education and university education. With these few remarks, I beg to support this Motion. Thank you."
}