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"id": 488326,
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"speaker_name": "Hon. Ichung’wah",
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"content": "Hon. Speaker, I rise to support this Motion of Adjournment. I am always overly excited when we adjourn the House when young children, like mine, are going back to school. This is because I will have the opportunity, as usual, to drop them at school and pick them up in the evening, and, probably, spend some time doing a little homework with them. Therefore, I am very excited that we are adjourning the House when schools are about to open. Two, because, as many Members have said, we will have time in the constituencies to concentrate on our oversight role over the CDF committees. I count myself lucky because every now and then I can rush to my constituency, although I suffer the disadvantage of having to earn nothing in terms of mileage. I am able to oversee projects in my constituency. This gives Members who come from far-flung areas an opportunity to go and see what is happening back in their constituencies. In relation to what hon. Mule has said, it is important to talk about the question of the devolved functions. About those who are speaking of a referendum at this time, I support what hon. Midiwo said, that we, as leaders in this National Assembly, have a responsibility and an obligation to keep this country together. However, I want to challenge our brothers in the CORD Coalition. The way to keep this country together is not to take it back to an electioneering mood only one and a half years after the last general election that was very divisive. If we are responsible leaders, and I support what hon. Midiwo said, we cannot stop ordinary citizens like hon. Raila Odinga and hon. Kalonzo Musyoka from pushing for a referendum. But I also challenge those of us who are sitting in this House as Members that, indeed, it is time we rose to the occasion. Let us not support those ordinary citizens who are pushing for a referendum because they do not have the alternative; we, as Members of Parliament, can push any constitutional amendments that we want on the Floor of this House. Therefore, I want to challenge our colleagues on the other side of the House. We all have issues in the Constitution that we would want to see amended. We can save the tax payers’ a lot of money that would have to go into a referendum. We can also save Kenyans a lot of divisive and unnecessary politicking at this time by sponsoring Bills on the Floor of this House. I must thank hon. Lati, who has sponsored a constitutional amendment Bill on the Equalisation Fund. I am one of those Members who have been very supportive of that Bill, because it aims at improving the lives of many of our constituents. There are two wards in my constituency, namely Karai and Nachi, that over the last 50 years have been largely marginalized. Probably, if this money is devolved to the constituency level, we will also have a chance to benefit. I can see hon. John Mbadi shaking his head for hearing that there is a place in Kikuyu of Kiambu County that is marginalized. Indeed, it is true that Ndeiya and Limuru in Kikuyu Constituency are largely marginalized. They are as semi arid and arid as Marsabit County. The level of development has been very lacklustre for the last 50 years. Therefore, we are looking for an opportunity to share in this Fund. Hon. Speaker, the other question I wanted to contribute to is the bipartisan approach on issues in this House. I want to tell our colleagues that, indeed, it is possible to amend the Constitution on the Floor of this House. On the question of accountability, it is important that we tell our governors that there are no two ways about it, because they 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."
}