Nominated Senator Karen Nyamu now wants Nairobi County included among the regions benefiting from the Equalisation Fund.
Speaking at the Senate Assembly on Wednesday, Nyamu raised concerns that Nairobi has been viewed as a rich county when millions of slum dwellers are suffering.
The sitting was debating the Equalization Fund Appropriation Bill, (Senate Bills, 30 of 2023).
"I support the concept of marginalised areas being given extra funds to facilitate development activities. This alleviates the burden of the already strained county budget. I support it because it is project-specific and area-specific," Nyamu said.
" But Nairobi has been assumed to be a rich county. Just because we have rich estates like Muthaiga, Karen we ignore the slum dwellers of Nairobi," she said.
Nyamu noted that every marginalised area in Kenya deserves a fair allocation of resources for the benefit of residents.
She said the fact that Nairobi is home to several slums makes it qualified to receive funds that will enable it to help vulnerable people.
"Nairobi is the home of big slums like Kibera, Mathare, and Korogocho among others," Nyamu said.
"The deplorable state these slum citizens live in has continued to be ignored by policymakers and also legislators in this and other house."
Nyamu was protesting the exclusion of Nairobi among the counties that are set to benefit from the Equalization Fund.
Only 34 counties have been identified.
"I want this house and policymakers to deal with these regions and recognise these areas as marginalised because they are indeed marginalised," she said.
"The fact that they neighbour leafy suburbs does not mean that they should be ignored. Madam Speaker, they are not children of a lesser god," she said.
