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"content": "and there has, indeed, been quite a lot of discussion in the media about what should be done and so on. We must understand that the CDF came in a context where there was no devolution and before county governments came in to do the kind of things that we feared were not being done during the authoritarian regime since Independence. When I was the Minister for Planning and National Development, we realized that if money is appropriated by the central Government all the time, and the manner in which the budgets were done then and having seen how these budgets were discussed in Parliament year in, year out, without making any difference; and knowing full well that once the budgets were passed the Treasury and central Government could re-organize them and spend the money as, indeed, they determined, it was necessary to give Members of Parliament some resources to respond to the pressure by the wananchi that there was no development going on in the grassroots. Also, to ease the pressure of Harambees, that was the only way in which the wananchi could get some resources for development. That was the context. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we now have to deal with the following mischief. One, now that we are budgeting for all the money to go as constitutionally provided between the national Government and county governments, is the CDF Act in contravention to the Constitution? Could the kind of thing that the CDF was meant to do be now done effectively by the county governments? You can only answer that question if you abolish Harambees. This is because I see Harambees as being in contravention to the Constitution and county governments. If we leave Harambee, Members of Parliament and Senators, for that matter, will still be under pressure from wananchi to raise money for developments, which are not catered for either by the county governments or the national Government. We may find ourselves very soon, as Senators, also looking for our own CDF, because people want to see you doing some development in the grassroots. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, my very radical proposal is the following, and lawyers here will support me. Indeed, I do see that the context in which the CDF came is no longer applicable. Secondly, the work that the CDF was doing – providing monies for building dispensaries, water resources, hospitals, schools and so on – must be taken over effectively by both the county governments and the central Government. Thirdly, the need to do some other kinds of social work in the grassroots that usually counters Harambee, still will remain. If they still will remain, the elected leaders at whatever level will still need some resources to respond to this and the only way that we can do this is to take the bull by the horn and abolish Harambee . I think that this is something that both we, in the Senate, and those in the National Assembly must deal with. I know that it will be very unpopular but if, indeed, we are going to be truthful to the Constitution, you cannot leave Harambee and still say that elected leaders do not have some kind of resources by which they can respond to these pressures from the people, because I think that, that is important. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, let me talk about this issue of counties’ special needs and interests. I think that the previous contributors to this Motion did say that it was rather irrational for the Transition Authority to have met with Governors and decided that, that money – Kshs61 million or whatever it was – was to be shared equally among the counties. It did not make sense and still does not make sense. This is because we still have counties with special problems and every county that you go to will have some The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}