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{
    "id": 826477,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/826477/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 267,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kathiani, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Robert Mbui",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1750,
        "legal_name": "Robert Mbui",
        "slug": "robert-mbui"
    },
    "content": "Special Funds Accounts Committee generally has been doing great work from its inception. Recently, we had the occasion to listen to them present three years audited financial statements of NG-CDF of all the constituencies within the county of Nairobi and they are quite a lot. I think this Committee is really working very hard. It is second only to the Committee on Delegated Legislation that I sit in, which the Speaker himself said is the best Committee. So, this must be second best committee. Because we are talking about political parties, allow me to mourn the death of my party leader’s father who passed away and he is going to be buried this Friday. I would like to urge that all Members converge in Tseikuru in Mwingi so that we can send off our dear late grandfather who gave birth to our party leader, who is a former Vice President and, of course, party leader of the WDM-K. Democracies in the developed world are very strong. One of the things that helps the democracy in those countries to operate as it does is because of the political parties. For example, in the USA, there are two major political parties. Those two parties have departments that try to encourage the growing democracies of the world to reach where they are. I remember severally that in my first term in Parliament, I had occasion to meet with the NDI from the USA who go around training political parties in this country. Obviously, for them to reach there, it means that the Democratic Party in the USA has enough funds to run their affairs and even has extra money that they can use to try and encourage the growth of democracy in other countries. It is important to note that political parties need to be funded. Funding political parties allows them to do more activities and reduces pressure on members. A political party that only depends on its members for funds results in the members of that political party being under constant pressure to raise money for party activities. That is why you find that many times, at the end of the five-year term just before the elections, the nomination processes in a lot of our parties are completely flawed. That is simply because there are people who need to make money. The political parties have no money even to manage simple things like the nominations. It is important that we properly fund these political parties in a timely basis. It is clear that the Exchequer has been having issues of funding. In fact, it is not just political parties, even in our own NG-CDF and Parliament, money comes late. There are planned activities by our Committees that cannot take place simply because there is a delay in the release of funds from the National Treasury. It is important that we strengthen our sources of funding and collection of revenue so that we have enough money to run the affairs of this country and fund our parties on time. It is also important that the political parties be audited. Political parties are made up of politicians. Politicians are generally in the National Assembly, county assemblies and the Senate. They are supposed to have one major responsibility called oversight. That means that they must look at how the Executive - at the county and national levels - spends public funds. For us to audit the national Government and the county governments, we must ensure that the taxpayers’ money that we receive from the Exchequer is also used prudently in our own political parties. I thank this Committee because it has done a great job to ensure that those audited reports are looked at and to give a clean bill of health to the parties. With regard to the management of this Fund, I support my colleague from FORD – K. He says that there is a problem. This money is shared between political parties. For a political party to qualify, it has to have 3 per cent of the total votes cast, 20 Members of Parliament, three Senators, three governors and a minimum of 40 MCAs. Unfortunately, it is very silent on the arrangement of coalitions which are agreeable. We can form coalitions for purposes of going into 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."
}