An ODM member of parliament has on Saturday urge the main opposition coalition party Cord, to form one formidable part ahead of 2017 general election, if the party wants to remain relevant and achieve its quest to ascend into the country's leadership.
Speaking at Masalani town during the disbursement of 12.4 millions shilling of the Uwezo fund to 145 youth groups in his Ijara constituency, the area MP Ahmed Ibrahim Abass said, said the recent political realignment in the country, where the ruling Jubilee coalition parties has merged to establish Jubilee Alliance should inform the Cord's preparations for the forthcoming national polls.
"As a senior member of the opposition coalition party, I urge our three principals to dissolve their respective parties and form one strong party that will square out with the Jubilee alliance in 2017 general election", he said.
He added" If our three principals (Raila, Wetangula and Kalonzo) in the cord family are not willing to merge into one strong opposition party to battle it out favorably with the reorganized Jubilee alliance, some of us may consider to walk out of the coalition. We can't be part of lose party that is likely to face another defeat in next general election",
The Ijara legislator noted that, if the Cord coalition were to establish one united party, the opposition party will be confidence in forming the next government noting that preparations toward that goal must be started early enough to avoid last minute rush like the one experienced in 2013.
The youthful MP said, Cord is the most popular party with strong countrywide representation, however, it has been weaken by competing interests by the parties forming the coalition adding that ones the coalition partners merge into one strong party, the party's march to the state house will be a walk in the park.
Abass who was disbursing cheques to youth groups who got Uwezo money urge the youth groups from his constituency, who benefited from the first trench of the fund to invest the money they got wisely and refrain from misuse of the same adding that, groups which fail to return the money on the stipulated time frame will be prosecuted and blacklisted.
"We want the youth group, which applied for this money and have today received the money to invest it in a viable business ventures not to misuse the money. We want the money to change your lives for the better", He said.
The lawmaker advised the youth to avoid idling in the villages/towns or chasing for the limited white collar jobs and instead take advantage of the devolved funds availed to them by the national government and learn to be self reliance.
The Ijara constituency Uwezo fund chairman Amir Shaffat Dualle said that majority of the 145 groups that got the money were give shilling 100,000, while few of the remaining got shilling 50,000 noting that the payment of the said amounts to the groups were informed by the past and present financial handling and business acumen of the same.
"There were slightly over 200 youth groups which applied for funding under, but we picked the groups which have business presence in the constituency and are not involved in any history of misuse of public funds. Some groups who applied were locked out since they have defaulted on previous funding from the government such as youth and women fund", He explained.
Dualle said the beneficiaries groups will enjoy 6 months grace period before which they will start making repayment of the grant adding that those who got shilling 100,00 will be required to pay 4167 monthly until the recoup the amount, while those who got shilling 50,000 will be paying 2084 monthly.
He cautioned that those who default to pay their monthly repayment on three months after lapse of the six months grace period they will be imposed an extra 5% penalty of the amount received.
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