By Hon Junnet Muhammed
The last two days I’ve been visiting various schools in my constituency to inspect what we’ve achieved with our CDF for the last financial year. The tour also gave me an opportunity to share with my constituents the priority areas we’ve earmarked for the coming financial year.
EDUCATION
a) Half of our CDF has gone into education purposes. We are constructing more classrooms, science labs, dining halls, water tanks and boreholes etc. We are also ensuring that old schools with high admissions have school buses for use by students in out of school curriculum and co-curricula activities.
b) I devolved bursary to voting centre level. Each voting centre in my constituency has a bursary committee which identifies needy students to benefit from our bursary fund. Once my CDF team and I have decided on the cumulative amounts for each voting centre, we send them the money and they decide who is most needy to benefit.
My thinking is that the voting centre is the lowest and most basic unit of our constituency. It is the voting centre where a village decides to make a decision about they future. This has worked for us, and many people whose voices no longer counted today find themselves critical and significant in decision-making.
I have however instructed that each student beneficiary must receive at sh 8,000 CDF bursary. We intend to increase this amount to upto Ksh 15,000.
c) Through the assistance of Rural Electrification Authority (REA), we are connecting power to more primary and secondary schools. This has extended learning time and Suna East is today the biggest contribution of primary pupils to good secondary schools. More secondary schools are taking more students to colleges and the university than any other time in the past.
ROADS & BRIDGES
Much work is going on in this area. Several roads are being repaired. CDF cannot construct bitumen roads so much on this area is left for national and county governments. However, we’ve ensured critical roads are usable and safe.
SECURITY & SAFETY
With high mast lighting powered by solar, we’ve ensured several roads within our constituency are safe and dependable throughout the night. Each village have our version of ‘men in black’ to deal with those who plan to harm us while we are asleep. I am happy that Suna East has no night runners unlike Ndhiwa.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
While touring my constituents, I realized we do better as a community when we assemble under trees to talk to each other. This way, I inform them what CDF can do and what is for the county or national government to do. With civic knowledge, we are then able to transform our politics from constant confrontations to constructive deliberations. Everyone has equal voice. So we share from deep our hearts. Our baraza also helps us get to know each other at inter-personal level.
I know most of my constituents by their names, families and homes. Yesterday, after visiting five schools, we ended our meeting at 11pm at Kwa Secondary School where the community gave me a mbuzi. We had just offered the school Ksh. 1 million for school development.
GRIEVANCE.
Someone in Nairobi is delaying national identification cards of my constituents. The people of Suna East deserve to be adults in Kenya once they’ve attained 18 years. Many youths cannot get into gainful employment because Nairobi see ID cards are only meant for voting. In short, dear Nairobi, give my people National I.D CARDS!
P.S: Now that I am convinced my constituency is on track, I return to Nairobi more determined to serve my constituents and the national constituency of pro-change citizens.
Happy Madaraka Day.
By Hon Junnet Mohammed 
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