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"id": 959200,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) James Nyikal",
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"content": "Funds can do better are issues to do with management structures and not the question whether they should be merged or not. If you look at the issue of structures, many of us know that the Funds, particularly the Uwezo Fund and the Youth Enterprise and Development Fund are to a large extent supported through the constituency offices. They are linked to Government officers on the ground. They do not have their own structures like offices. You will find that the Youth Enterprise and Development Fund and the Uwezo Fund, to a large extent, are aligned to the youth officer on the ground. The Women Enterprise Fund is suffering because you have officers on the ground who, prior to devolution, were aligned to the Ministry of Social Development and Gender, but now they seem to be running on their own and have delinked from the Social Development Officers, particularly women groups that they are supposed to serve. So, we have a problem of mobilisation and we do not have good structures particularly for women on the ground to support them. If that were done, these structures would work very well. With regard to financial support, the Women Enterprise Fund, the Uwezo Fund and the Youth Enterprise and Development Fund do not have a particular amount of funds that are dedicated for their running. So, you find these officers having very meagre funds to run the institutions and yet they still make fairly remarkable contributions towards funds available to the youth and women. I must say, in the three cases in my mind, the women one has done very well and perhaps better than the youth in utilising these funds. They are using both the Women Enterprise Fund and the Uwezo Fund. Even if you look at the capacity building around them, you will find that the committees that are put in place have not been properly funded. In the case of the Uwezo Fund, the capacity building fund remains in Nairobi at the headquarters, so that on the ground, they are not properly supported. That is what should be addressed. I think we are addressing this issue in a way that will not be helpful at all. We should strengthen these Funds. If we think we should merge them, we should do a detailed study of the impact they have had and the structures that they need, to make them run properly before we think of simply merging them through a regulation. As I conclude, let me say what my colleagues have said. Every time you are giving out cheques for the Youth Enterprise and Development Fund, the Uwezo Fund or the Women Enterprise Fund, I always have a question in my mind. The men ask: “Where is the fund for adult men?” We are leaving that gap. It should not be assumed that men are not vulnerable. Vulnerability has to do with the means of production and the financial capacity you have. Men are just as needy as women for this kind of funds. We should look at such gaps instead of running to amalgamate this in a way that will not help them be more productive as they are. With that, I support the Motion for annulment."
}