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"id": 976456,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Gilgil, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Martha Wangari",
"speaker": {
"id": 13123,
"legal_name": "Martha Wangari",
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"content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I rise to support the Report on the audited financial statements of the Uwezo Fund and the Woman Enterprise Fund. The Fund has been a game-changer in many constituencies especially in constituencies where it has been managed well. But the genesis of the Fund being political, so to say, was to do the run- off in case it happened in 2013. This almost made the beneficiaries to think that it was a political gift. When most of us came in as new constituency representatives, it was very difficult to recover the loans. Most of the beneficiaries would tell us that the former Member of Parliament gave them the money and so, why would you want to recover the money? They said that it was a gift for them. I have had to use chiefs and assistant chiefs to raise my recovery. If you do not raise it to 50 per cent, the disbursements are stopped. The importance of the loans is that it not only has a zero per cent interest, but it also gives you a grace period of six months before you start paying. From the beneficiaries in my constituency, I have been lucky to raise the recovery, but it has not been a walk in the park. In fact, if one is not careful, this might affect one politically because it looks like you have to chase people to their houses for them to repay the loans. Some groups were formed haphazardly. They accessed the money, say they got Ksh100,000, the members divided the money amongst themselves and it becomes very difficult to trace and get the money back. I know there are many audit queries, but I just want to talk on a few issues, say three points. One is the conflict with the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF). Women representatives, who are also represented in the Uwezo Fund, run another Fund called the NGAAF, which is usually given as a grant. Unless we have enough education on the two, it is very difficult for the members of the public to understand that the NGAAF is not paid back, but the Uwezo Fund must be paid back. If you look at the national repayment percentages between the Women Enterprise Fund and the Uwezo Fund, you will see a major discrepancy that favours the Women Enterprise Fund. In my constituency, the repayment rate for the Women Enterprise Fund is at 98.9 per cent. Almost all the women who get loans from the Women Enterprise Fund pay it back, which is not the same as the Uwezo Fund. We have a serious challenge with the young people. Women have a tendency to pay back their liabilities, which I think is a reason why the Women Enterprise Fund is very successful compared to the Uwezo Fund. We are having a challenge with the young people repaying the money. The board must come up with ideas of how best to ensure recovery goes up. On the training issue, for example, in Gilgil Constituency, we have 1,348 Km2 of land to cover. The Uwezo Fund team has no facilitation to enable them to go around that constituency. If you tell someone to come from Magashuma, the end of the constituency neighbouring Narok, to Gilgil Town where the offices are, they will spend about Ksh1,000 to and from. It does not make economic sense if they are coming for training only to get Ksh50,000. It would be better for the committee, just like in the NG-CDF, to have a quantum on what to spend. Let us have a percentage that is agreeable, say five per cent of the money, going to administration. Let us enable the committee to go around the constituency to enforce training as well as recovery of the money. 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."
}