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{
    "id": 801890,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/801890/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 229,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Jaldesa",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 601,
        "legal_name": "Rehema Dida Jaldesa",
        "slug": "rehema-dida-jaldesa"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this chance to contribute. We are fasting and time was running out. I was getting worried. I also want to join my colleagues in supporting this Budget and to congratulate the Budget and Appropriations Committee for doing a good budget process. We gather that it was a participatory process. They took the first initiative by visiting some counties. I congratulate them for that. It is an excellent Budget. It is quite involving. At least it covered most aspects. Infrastructure and the Big Four Agenda were covered. Therefore, I congratulate them. I want to speak on two issues. One, I want to understand why the Budget and Appropriations Committee felt necessary to reduce the allocation of school feeding programme by Kshs300 million. A Member brought a Motion before this House to ensure that school- feeding programme becomes compulsory and a nation-wide activity. Therefore, I do not know why that amount was reduced. On the issue of NYS, it is given that NYS has become a cash cow since it became vibrant in 2015 and 2016. The NYS is not the only institution that has been identified with corruption; we have seen big corruption in KPA and many Ministries. Therefore, this is not fair. The NYS has brought a lot of transformation in the lives of the youth of this country. It has some social component that had worked for women empowerment. The best way of dealing with corruption, in my view, is not to cut their budget but to put adequate measures to ensure that corruption does not thrive. The Committee needs to look at that. Secondly, I want to speak about the Equalisation Fund. It is not fair that this Fund is not put in the Budget because of lacuna in policy. Since inception of this Equalisation Fund, we have been having a lot of challenges. The most worrying – and not that I am opposing – is redefinition of marginalisation and trying to bring many counties into the marginalisation bracket when the ones that are already meant to be de-marginalised have not been done so. Therefore, I urge this House to fast-track the process of implementing the marginalisation policy so that at least the 14 counties that were initially to catch up with other counties can benefit from this Fund. Lastly, I want to speak about the Affirmative Action Fund that is meant for the women representatives. As it is, the women representatives are marginalised because we are campaigning in the entire county just like the governors who control a lot of resources yet we have little resources. We need resources to enable us achieve our mandate especially those of us from Isiolo and Lamu counties. We are already marginalised further because we have only two constituencies. We need an affirmative action within an affirmative action. Therefore, I urge the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}