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"id": 837551,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/837551/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Pokot South, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. David Pkosing",
"speaker": {
"id": 2662,
"legal_name": "Losiakou David Pkosing",
"slug": "losiakou-david-pkosing"
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"content": "urbanisation in this country. Seven, management and administration of towns and municipalities that cut across two counties. Eight, any other purpose that will enhance development and promotion of urban development programmers that may be determined by the Director of Urban Development and Management in this country. The fund shall complement donor funding for urban development. Very importantly, the fund shall be used to provide for conditional grants to the county governments and also counter funding. I had an opportunity to attend a World Bank conference recently, three months ago, and realised that donors might be willing to come and help counties, but they will ask counties for counter funding. They will say: If we are giving you 90 per cent, we want 10 per cent from you to do a certain capital project. With the money we are giving counties, it will not be sufficient. That is why we are proposing that we create this fund at the national level. That is so that if Trans Nzoia County or Homa Bay County, for example, get a donor who gives them conditions, the national Government can rescue them in terms of developing the towns by using this fund. This way, we will have very happy people. Where will the fund come from? Hon. Members, we are suggesting that we create an urban fund. That is on Page 9 of our Report. If you allow me, I will mention two of them. The source of the Fund shall be: a) Such monies as may be appropriated by the National Assembly for the purposes of urban development or; b) Any funds provided by bilateral or multilateral donors for the purposes of the Fund; c) Gifts, grants, donations or endowments as may be given to the fund, and; d) Monies borrowed by the National Treasury. This is very crucial in providing services to our people. Hon. Members, We have given a lot of notes. Then, there is a reason to create municipalities and cities that have been proposed by the Senate. If we do not do that, we will have a problem. We will have cities without resources; we will have cities without any support system and it will be good only on paper. When it is on paper, it will gather dust and when it gathers dust, we will not have done anything. I hope we will rise to the occasion so that the House agrees with my Committee that we create this fund to help our counties. Everybody here comes from a county and will go back to those counties. We better listen, rise to the occasion and help them. That is one gap we found in that Bill from the Senate. As I conclude, the second gap is that we asked ourselves the question about timeframes. If we are creating city management boards, municipal boards, town committees and market committees, we need to give a timeframe. If you look at the original Bill, it created those institutions but nothing has happened up to now. My Committee has gone forward to propose an amendment which will come up at the Committee of the whole House. It is in our Report that this is not forever. The governors have been given the powers to establish those institutions, but it will not be forever. We have given a period of between two and three years maximum in this Report. We will propose it in the Committee of the whole House. Governors who are listening to us today should know that they will have only three years to establish those institutions, if the House agrees with amendments from my Committee and the President signs this Bill into law. It will not be business as usual. If we create this without adding anything, what is going to happen? Governors might be forced to wait forever. He might say it does not fit his thinking and leave the provisions of this Bill to gather dust at the shelves. We said it is not going to work like that. We are proposing a maximum of three years. Without that, we have given a condition. If the honourable House agrees with us and finally the Senate, we have said if Homa Bay Town is a municipality or a city and the governor has not established its management within three years, 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."
}