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{
    "id": 976449,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/976449/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 211,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Dennitah Ghati",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13171,
        "legal_name": "wilson sossion",
        "slug": "wilson-sossion"
    },
    "content": "areas do not have the necessary information, capacity and the knowhow to apply for the money from the Funds. That is a big challenge that the boards of the respective Funds need to look into, build the capacity of the groups and promote the uptake. The uptake of the funds from the rural setup is wanting due to lack of knowledge. Allow me, Hon. Speaker, to throw this to the Members of this House because the level of knowledge in the rural areas about the NG-CDF is high. Most of our people in the rural areas clearly understand what the NG-CDF and the National Government Affirmative Action Fund do, but there is a clear lack of knowledge on the Uwezo Fund, the Women Enterprise Fund and the other affirmative action funds. That is why when you analyse the uptake of loans from these Funds, you will see big discrepancies when it comes to rural-based constituencies compared to urban- based constituencies. The counties and constituencies that receive a lot of money from the Funds are mostly located in urban areas where there is a lot of information about the existence of the funds. Leading examples are Kiambu and Nyeri counties. It is very clear that a majority of our Members are yet to capacity-build and create knowledge amongst women who live in rural areas. If you look at the uptake of the Women Enterprise Fund and the Uwezo Fund in Nyanza and Western regions, which I will not be shy to talk about, you realise it is higher in the Mount Kenya region compared to our regions. That is a challenge that Members in this House must address because if you empower a woman, you empower her family and the entire community. Hon. Speaker, as a Member representing persons living with disabilities, I raised the issue that even within the various special interest groups, persons living with disabilities do not benefit from these funds. It is very clear. When we talk about SIGs in this country, who include women, youth and persons with disabilities, the PWDs tend to get lost along the way. We have work to do. This is a question that we raised with members of the boards when we interviewed them in our Committee. We told them to specifically and intentionally target the empowerment and capacity building of PWDs in the counties and constituencies, so that they can access the funds. We raised concern when it came to the management of the funds at the constituency level. The Uwezo Fund and the Women Enterprise Fund are managed by the Women’s Representative and the Member of Parliament for the constituency. You will realise that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done between those two Members of Parliament to ensure timely gazettement. There were counties or constituencies whose representation was not gazetted in the Kenya Gazette . That means that the counties and constituencies whose Members are not gazetted do not receive the funds. We wondered how we can then empower people when we have not provided their names for gazettement, so that they can access the funds. I throw this to our Members that even as we talk about empowering our women, youth and PWDs, we should remember that those three groups of people go together. You cannot empower a woman or a young person and leave out a PWD. Those three groups constitute SIGs as stipulated in Article 100 of our Constitution and need to be respected, so that we can ensure that nobody is left behind. The 5 per cent that the Committee proposed should be immediately implemented. Within our own constituencies where the funds are found, the staff or the committees that manage the funds are employed by the Member of Parliament of that constituency. It has to be very clear. That is why in our Committee, we suggested that the boards of the funds should consider allocating 5 per cent to support capacity building. Currently, they do not have funds that support that. They think that that is a responsibility of the Member of Parliament. That is why knowledge of the Uwezo Fund and the Women Enterprise Fund at the community level is still lacking. 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."
}