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{
    "id": 976488,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/976488/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 250,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mwea, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Josphat Kabinga",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13441,
        "legal_name": "Josphat Kabinga Wachira",
        "slug": "josphat-kabinga-wachira-2"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me a chance to contribute to this Report. I really want to support the Report because it is well researched and to the point. When we talk about the Uwezo Fund, which I would want to concentrate on, it was basically designed to contribute to the Vision 2030 to enable women, youth and PWDs to access funds. It was launched on 8th September 2013 by His Excellency the President and was implemented under Legal Notice No.21 of 2014. You realise that this Fund is characterised by a number of things and challenges. From the outset, this Fund was considered to be political. The Fund was used by the implementers and more so the patrons, to advance their political interests. Therefore, in most constituencies, the performance of the Fund is based on how it was founded by those that were before us. It is important that we officially say that while some of us are being seen as if we are not implementing the Fund, the real problem originated from those who handled it in the initial stages. Therefore, it is good to say that the success of this Fund is not dependent on the current Members of Parliament and women who are patrons, but on how it was implemented. It is for this reason that in some constituencies, including mine, since I was elected, we have not been able to disburse any money. I bear the blame yet I was not there when it was founded. There is a section that requires that some amount of money be recovered before you can be given any other money. The initial foundation was that groups were not well vetted and the money did not flow back in. It is possible for a Member of Parliament to serve for five years without disbursing a single coin. One of the other problems that we have is inadequate funds for capacity building. Quite often than not, some of Members of Parliament would have to spend money to bring together administrators, including assistant chiefs, chiefs and DCs to help in the recovery of funds. No resource person can tap into the Uwezo Fund itself. This has made it inadequate to mobilise administrators to help in collecting the loans. The other problem is that because of the inadequate amount that is left for administration and monitoring, the employed officers who are charged with the responsibility of monitoring the performance of the funds are just seated in their offices. They are helpless because they do not have even funds to travel around. They only stay in their constituency offices, which is inadequate for them to monitor performance of the particular funds. I am concerned that in a constituency like mine that has two sub-counties, one officer is seated in a sub-county office and is not able to travel around. In this case, I will never be able to recover the 50 per cent amount that is required before I can get any other money. This needs to be looked into. 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."
}