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{
    "id": 455927,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/455927/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 295,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ogolla",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1264,
        "legal_name": "Gideon Ochanda Ogolla",
        "slug": "gideon-ochanda-ogolla"
    },
    "content": "The spirit of the Bill is fine with me, in terms of its suggestion to the national Government, which is mandated under Article 204, to look into ways in which the Equalisation Fund can be spent in marginalised areas. I want to, quickly, bring to the attention of the House the fact that there are one or two things that we need to be very careful about as we look at this Bill. The first one is the issue of time at which the Bill has come to the House. We need to remind ourselves that the Constitution allows a transition period of three years. It appears that we are in a hurry to effect many things within a short time. The law allows the national Government and the county governments to work in a manner that when a function is with the national Government but a county is well placed to carry out the particular function, the county government does it at the cost of the national Government. Some of these things are very clearly spelt out in the Constitution but we have not had the opportunity to see them work out. Consequently, we are, in every aspect, viewing the county governments as failures yet there is quite a period of time during which we need to experiment with some functions or even allow for purposes of transition. Another thing is that a lot of us are speaking to this Bill, minus one bit of critical information. I want to believe that when the CRA gives us a list of which areas are regarded marginalised, many of us will change. As it is now, we might be relying on the definition of “marginalised areas” based on the Article. We are not very sure that the CRA will use that Article to come up with a list of the areas that we call “marginalised areas”. For example, since the beginning of the discussion on this Bill, there are some of us who have been trying to look at marginalisation on the basis of areas which have not had a chance of producing a president for this country before. There are those who are looking at marginalised areas as areas that are very far from Nairobi. There are those who are looking at marginalised areas as areas that are ASAL. However, many times, if you look at, for example, poverty, the poverty index indicates things in a very different way from geography and other aspects of what we are looking at in this House. So, while talking about marginalisation, we should remember that some of hon. Members, including me, would not have been Members of this House; it is by tint of calculus that I am a Member of Parliament. If you look at it from the basis of where I come from, I am marginalised. My background, family and even how we are basically placed in that constituency, we are marginalised. So, the whole issue of marginalisation will be a big problem, in terms of definition of “marginalisation” and the real indicators of marginalisation. Therefore, I would like to remind the House that the Constitution sets out this as a mandate of the national Government, but the Bill is reminding the national Government that the Fund can be utilised through the CDF arrangement. What is important to remember is that the function still remains that of the national Government. The national Government is supposed to expedite the necessary mechanisms of how this Fund should be operationalised. This Bill is just a good reminder but I want to believe that when the time comes, and we realise that this is something that could work with the counties, people might want to change in a manner similar to the ways we have done it before, in terms of allocation. Geography and population have been used as basis for disbursement. There is a whole set of factors that are being used for purposes of disbursing funds. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}