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{
    "id": 603804,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/603804/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 244,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "Executive Committees (CECs). Governors in Kenya have perfected the art of grabbing. When we speak like this some of them criticize us and say we have ambitions to be governors. Today, they grab more than the caterpillar and this is something that we have to speak about. This was not the idea of devolution, in my opinion. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I have said it before, and I want to say it again, that being a Member of Parliament is a contract. At some point, all of us seated here will either be former Members of Parliament or we will have left the scene anyway. It is said that good leaders plan for the next generation, while bad leaders plan for the next election. Let us rise above the little considerations and the criticisms that have been levelled against the CDF, so that we can demonstrate to this country and to the world that the 11th Parliament is endowed with good leaders, who are able to plan for the next generation, by ensuring that this unique development model for Kenya is preserved unto posterity. I know the interest on this matter is a lot and every Member would want to contribute. Having sat in the Committee – I am glad that Hon. Lessonet mentioned it – I know that there are weaknesses that we speak about and we have tried to rectify some of them. The roles of the project management committees (PMCs) and the constituency fund account managers (FAMs) have been strengthened. Perhaps, one of the weakest links in the amended CDF Act, if indeed the courts were to identify a weak link, is the role of the FAMs. The FAMs appear to answer to nobody. The CDF Board does not seem to know what they are doing nor what they want to submit to the CDF Committee. The idea of giving the CDF Committee supervisory duties over the FAM is a good innovation that we need to support. The creation of the oversight committee which will include the Member of Parliament is a good idea. After all, our role as Members of Parliament, other than making laws and representing the people, is to provide oversight over the use of resources. I encourage all Members to support this good Bill. I have had a chance to speak to some of the judges who presided over declaring CDF Act illegal and they admit that some of the court rooms from where they work were actually built by CDF money. It is a contradiction that something which has benefitted everybody across the board can merely be cast aside because people think that something which is being rolled out, and which still has a lot of problems in the name of devolution, is probably a better model. I second this Bill and encourage all Members to support it. The ideas being espoused in this Bill are largely those of the CDF Committee, where I sit. For the purposes of enriching this Bill, and ensuring that this uniquely Kenyan model that has worked so well and that has ensured that today there are Kenyan youth almost in every shopping centre in Kenya making windows or blocks, I encourage as many Members as possible to go through this Bill in detail, so that they can propose amendments which will make this Bill a better law, a law that can ensure that the original intentions of CDF are realised. The CDF is a kitty that is available at the very local level. It is a kitty that can be used to address some of the emergencies that emerge from time to time. This kitty should not only be encapsulated into our legal system, but it should be made better, so that its impact can go from strength to strength. Hon. Deputy Speaker, with those remarks, I beg to second the Bill."
}