HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 880548,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/880548/?format=api",
"text_counter": 485,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kitutu Chache North, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Jimmy Angwenyi",
"speaker": {
"id": 326,
"legal_name": "Jimmy Nuru Ondieki Angwenyi",
"slug": "jimmy-angwenyi"
},
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I hope the powers have heard her sentiments and they can appoint Eng. Karue to some position in this country, especially to be the Chairman of the NG-CDF Board. He tried to run for governorship, but he could not make it. He is at home. However, I want to say that, eventually, as God arranged, Hon. Kibaki won the elections in 2002 and both Eng. Karue and I, were re- elected. So, we revived our Bill, but when we went to see him, he called Hon. Mwiraria, who was the Minister for Finance and told him: “Can we take these young people’s Bill?” Hon. Mwiraria said: “We found our coffers empty.” He said that Moi had emptied all the coffers and there was no money. However, Kibaki convinced him to take it up and asked us to accept two things: One, to reduce the minimum from 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent, and two, to give the Bill to Hon. Mwiraria to be a Government Bill instead of being a Private Member’s Bill, which we did and the Bill was passed. That is what our Kenyans are enjoying today. I heard somebody earlier say that cheques used to be paid to Members of Parliament. It was never done that way. That was being done in South Africa and we tried to borrow from there, but we did not pass it in this Parliament. So, Members of Parliament were never paid through cheques to their accounts to use in the NG-CDF projects. Anyway, I have seen the Report and it is a good one. I wish this House can really support the Committee so that we can demand our fair share of the national budget for the NG-CDF projects. For example, the national budget for the year ending June this year was Kshs1.7 trillion. If you calculate 2.5 per cent of Kshs1.7 trillion, it will be Kshs42 billion and not Kshs33 billion. So, we are owed Kshs11 billion. We are owed in a Parliament which has the power to approve or disapprove the budget. I cannot understand that. Certain projects had been undertaken by the NG-CDF committees in the various constituencies, but governors went to court and they were given certain services and functions which were removed from the national Government to the counties, for example, building of dispensaries and health facilities, developing water sources, cattle dips and agricultural facilities. Governors went to court and the court decided that the projects are to be done by the devolved governments. Therefore, the NG-CDF cannot do them. However, some of the projects had been undertaken and they were halfway done or some portions of them had been done, but they are now white elephants because governors have never taken them up. Where I come from, they never took them up. We have powers to approve the budget. Can this House decide in the coming Supplementary Budget to assign some amount of money to complete pending projects throughout the country? Thirdly, there are arrears which were not paid in the last four or five years. Those arrears amount to about Kshs4.9 billion. We should demand that this is paid to us. We should not think that the money should have been paid to the Member of Parliament who was there at that time. The money belongs to the constituency and not the Member of Parliament. If it is disbursed now, you can use it to develop your constituency. Finally, let us facilitate the committee concerned so that they can monitor and oversee the NG-CDF functions in the country instead of leaving it to the Auditor-General even though he can help in the supervision. Since the Members are not active in NG-CDF committees, they can oversee the projects in the constituency. We should also raise the minimum share of the national revenue to 5 per cent. We must do it legally. We do not want to increase the share without a legal framework. The counties are supposed to be given 15 per cent of the national revenue. Currently, they have reached 32 per 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."
}