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{
    "id": 648569,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/648569/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 295,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Midiwo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 184,
        "legal_name": "Washington Jakoyo Midiwo",
        "slug": "jakoyo-midiwo"
    },
    "content": "The Senators are going to leave their cardinal role given to them in the Constitution. They can set up parliamentary committees in the Senate to do that job. But we are giving them money to go and conduct opinion polls. Members of Parliament must read the effect of money going to their villages when it is given as a grant. In the next Budget, which we have partially gone through, there is an additional Kshs1 billion shillings which has been divided in formulae of 47, 45 and 8. Just casual imagination, the Senator of the County of Nairobi will get a grant of Kshs40 million shillings in an election year. Further to that, let us look at the way that money will be managed. The signatories to the accounts to be opened shall be the constituency office managers. There will be two signatories appointed by the Senator. We cannot just have been complaining about corruption and the governors and then rush to pass a law to open a Pandora’s Box. We need to look at this matter critically. I plead with you to allow us to consult as Members of this House and even interrogate these Regulations. These are Regulations that have been made by the Senate and they have not been checked by anybody. To allow them, in an election year, to have money it means that, averagely, each Senator will, between now and the next general elections, get about Kshs50 million as a grant for monitoring by people they appoint, conducting opinion polls and facilitating public barazas . Based on these Regulations, a Senator can even call for a political rally for re-election or his election as a governor and say that he was conducting a public baraza . This contradicts the role of the Senate in our Constitution. I want to plead with you to allow us time, at least, until tomorrow to look for another reason. In my view, in most of these constituencies, the Budget and Appropriations Committee has the responsibility. We even had those economic stimulus projects that the Government never finished. We can reallocate this money to finish the projects started by the Executive in our constituencies. In my constituency, the Ramula One Project has been stuck for seven years. You should give me this money so that I can buy equipment for the youth to do the woodwork. This allocation will be done without my vote. I cannot stand here and give money. These Members of Parliament must ask themselves about the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF), which has been a subject of a lot of noise. No Member here was elected and sat in the CDF Committee. We have always been patrons, but people are making noise and thinking that we were doing this with the CDF. Members of this House do not have that kind of kitty. Why do you want to give it to somebody else? If that is the way the country is used to - to spend money recklessly - then let us give it to all MPs, including Members of the National Assembly so that money meets money out there."
}