By ANDREW MUKOMA
THE Continental Leadership Research Institute (CLRI) has called for support and hard work by all stakeholders if the country is to achieve its targets and objectives.
In a statement to the media, CLRI Executive Director Paul Mundia Hakola noted the increase in allocation to Constituency Development Fund (CDF) which he said speaks to decentralization agenda of the country and development of constituencies.
He said communities have been empowered through the said increase in the funding of Constituencies saying communities will draw their own development plan with their own key priority areas.
Mr Hakoola said CLRI recognises that one of the major reasons why rural areas have not been able to progressively develop has been attributed to lack of resources and the increase of CDF presents that opportunity for rural constituency to develop.
“This will also require a lot capacity building to be conducted in most of these constituencies and also to ensure that the right human resource is in place to implement the projects on the ground. We are also alive to the fact that decentralization will empower local communities while exposing ineffective elected officials and their staff because they have no reason not to develop their communities when financial resources have been made available,” he said.
Mr Hakoola also expressed concern at the ignorance being exhibited by some Members of Parliament and Local Authorities regarding the role of ward development committees in the development agenda of the country.
“CLRI has also noted with great concern the ignorance by some members of parliament and local authorities on the role of Ward Development Commitees (WDC) and CDF in the developmental agenda of the country and what the roles are of the elected officials in matters relating to CDF.
“The knowledge gap worries us because these are the people who are supposed to ensure they work towards implementing constituency development through the CDF funds allocated but if they don’t even understand their role and that of WDC in implementation CDF funds. There is need to ensure their trained on the various legal provisions in relating CDF and also what is expected of them,” he said.
“CLRI calls upon the central government through Ministry of Local Government and other line ministries, office of Auditor General and State House Monitoring and Evaluation Office to develop strong evaluation tools to track progress on various projects and ensure that systems are put in place to monitor the projects and also ensure there is prudent management of public resources. At this point it is important that computerised systems are developed for easy tracking and management across the country,” he said.
He has since called on Youth and Women around the country to form cooperatives and benefit from the 25% allocated for empowerment programme.
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