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{
"id": 938008,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/938008/?format=api",
"text_counter": 156,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Emuhaya, ANC",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Omboko Milemba",
"speaker": {
"id": 13328,
"legal_name": "Jeremiah Omboko Milemba",
"slug": "jeremiah-omboko-milemba"
},
"content": "associated with colonisation and the struggle for Independence. During the struggle for Independence and colonization, boundaries that were drawn to demarcate countries and specifically Kenya did not take into account the interests of different people who were there. At the time, the people who fought for Independence did not even know that certain areas of Kenya were part of Kenya. Therefore, they did not have a chance of inviting them to the business of getting Independence. That is how they lost out. That is why they deliberately made them peripheral and marginalised. At the time of drafting the Constitution, the drafters realised that part of our problem was because certain areas were marginalised and left out and were actually points of not creating a peaceful atmosphere for the entire nation. That is why they came up with Article 204 to create a special Fund for those areas so that they can catch up with other areas of the nation that had developed ahead of those areas. The drafters of the Constitution were also very keen to state that the amount that should be given to those areas should be 0.5 per cent of all the revenue collected by the national Government each year, calculated on the basis of the most recent audited accounts of revenue received. At one point in time, this Government shall be sued by the people for not implementing and operationalising the Constitution. Once the Constitution is in place, the people have a right to take the Government to court or the Judiciary to operationalise it for their benefit. Therefore, I find this Bill coming at a good time so that this Article can be operationalised. The proposals by the Mover are very good. I wish to delink myself from the many speakers whom I know have spoken and many of them will come. They will just concentrate on who is marginalised, who is not marginalised and whether their areas are marginalised or not. So, we shall quickly divert this debate into an issue of inclusivity that “yes, I also come from this place and would want to be included”. But that is not the original organic thinking and mind of both the Constitution and the Mover of this Bill. Yes, we could have an iota of areas that have been left out, but that is not the basic thing we are dealing with. We want to deal with how to operationalise Article 204. They have given us very good options, that we create a national board that is also answerable to Parliament. Once this board is answerable to Parliament, it shall be overseen by Parliament and, therefore, the public. In so doing, they will also have a similar committee operating in those areas. I still want to agree with the Mover of the Motion that we go with areas and not counties because we could have a number of areas that were deliberately left out and need to be covered within several counties. So, you do not have to pick a county entirely because a small area within that county is marginalised. I totally support the fact that we should have committees at the levels of those areas. Those committees will be in line with the Constitution on the issues of public participation so that we do not have people in Nairobi planning for what will be done. Areas were chosen which needed to bring those people at par with other areas. Being a national Chairman of the teachers, I understand Kenya very well. There are areas you go to, parts of Turkana, Tana River, Samburu and other places, and you realise you are not in Kenya. The children are not going to school not because they do not want to, but because there are no schools, teachers and facilities. This is proper marginalisation. The four areas that were picked by the Constitution which were education, health, electricity and water, among other things, were specifically to bring those areas at par. Therefore, in line with our Constitution, those committees in those areas will actually get the priority areas, mark them and we finally operationalise this Bill. 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."
}