{"id":686752,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/686752/?format=json","text_counter":213,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. (Dr.) Ottichilo","speaker_title":"","speaker":{"id":131,"legal_name":"Wilber Ottichilo Khasilwa","slug":"wilber-ottichilo"},"content":"Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to second this Bill. This Bill is at the heart of every Member of this House. I hope we can pass it within the remaining time to enable it proceed to the Committee of the whole House, so that by next week it gets assented to by His Excellency the President. This will ensure that we have money while on recess to enable us do some work for our constituencies. I appeal to my colleagues to expedite the approval of this Bill. I also want to thank the Chairman of the NG-CDF Committee for bringing this amendment. This amendment is very important because it is now considering the changed situation in the country as regards CDF funding, especially the fact that it is now a national Government Fund. Therefore, this Bill is trying to ensure that the money that is availed through the NG-CDF is equally distributed amongst the 290 constituencies rather than using the old formula, which was arrived at because of disparities in development in the country. However, with the advent of the county governments, a lot of money has been devolved to the counties. Equally, the Constitution created the Equalisation Fund for marginalised areas, which can benefit directly from it. It is therefore very logical for us to share this money equally. A ruling by a court recently took away our Ksh10 billion. We are now remaining with very little money. If we use the previous formula, quite a number of constituencies will be very much disadvantaged. I want to support this amendment. I note that this Bill is very timely. It will benefit all the constituencies across the board. The functions of this Fund have been scaled down to focus mainly on education and security. We need this money. Some of our college-going students need financial help. We need this money so that we can distribute it to needy students in form of bursaries. We have many issues of security to deal with in our constituencies. So, it is important that we pass this Bill as soon as possible. Finally, I want to say something about the just concluded debate on the Bill regarding bating, gaming and lotteries. I agree with those who said that we need strict regulations on lottery and gaming, otherwise this country will become a gambling country and nobody will want to work. I want the young people who are in the galleries to work hard. I want them to know that there is no way they will get money easily. People are now being made to believe that they can just gamble. With those few remarks, I beg to second the Bill."}