Legislators Oppose Proposal by Senate to Channel NG-CDF Through Governors
Kaloleni MP Paul Katana at a public Baraza (Photo By Ronald/ Ngoba)
By Ronald Ngoba
Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com
Kaloleni MP Paul Katana has told off the senators for proposing that the channeling of NG-CDF kitty to the County governments terming their move as ill-advised.
Katana, speaking at Chilulu Primary School where he laid a foundation stone for two classrooms and an office costing Ksh8 million, challenged the senators instead to pressurise the government to make education free from pre-primary school, secondary to university than wasting time on the abolition of the kitty.
According to him the NG-CDF has played a significant role in improving schools’ infrastructure and enrolment hence acting as a game-changer of learning institutions in many remote areas of the country.
“This kitty is playing a crucial role not only in rebuilding our schools, but also ensuring that every primary school has a secondary wing to cater for its products.”
The kitty, in his words, has also helped many orphans and vulnerable children to access education through and through and therefore, scrapping it will be disadvantageous to many needy children from poverty-stricken families.
The lawmaker asked the senators to focus their energies on their oversight role of the 47 devolved units so as to protect public resources and ensure efficiency, and service delivery at county levels.
“Stop politicising this kitty and instead hold county governments into accountable as your principal mandate to make sure billions of taxpayers money are not siphoned into individuals’ pockets under your watch! The county leaders should be under your radar 24/7 and forget about a kitty not under your jurisdiction.”
The Kitty, he said was being managed by executive officials and NG-CDF boards in Nairobi and with the participation of the people at the sub-county levels.
“I wonder why the senators are pushing this issue as we, MPs, are not even members of those Kitty committees or even chair anything. These funds are a big help in relieving the burden of paying school fees for many parents, especially those poor of the poorest.”
He alleged the senators were being driven by jealousy to see that the kitty was scrapped saying its impact at grassroots levels was better than what County governments were doing for the same.
The CDF, later renamed NG-CDF kitty, was created in 2003 during the presidency of the late Mwai Kibaki and its core mandate was to improve school infrastructure and support education for the vulnerable families.
Katana, becomes the only legislator in Kilifi County to air his sentiments against the senators’ push to have the kitty transferred to the devolved units.
