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{
    "id": 720095,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/720095/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 126,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Okoth",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12482,
        "legal_name": "Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth",
        "slug": "kenneth-odhiambo-okoth"
    },
    "content": "partnership with the US can do, but we should not take it for granted. This is for our leaders within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and all branches of the Executive that things will be the same. The posture of the US and priorities will change under President Trump. We need to understand proactively how we can position ourselves to make sure that the partnership between Kenya and the US does not suffer and that when we are asking for agreements like this: Do we just rubberstamp and pass them through the House or do we leverage them in request for something else? Hon. Pukose comes from an area of this country where sugarcane farmers are suffering and they cannot export their sugar to the US. We should be asking for tit for tat. If this is an agreement that is important, that we are going to work on as partners, do not forget about the interests of our farmers and their access to the American market. Do not forget about young people from Kenya who might want to do business, study and travel to the US. We may think we are sitting pretty because the first seven countries of the Muslim travel ban that was placed by President Trump’s Executive Order includes countries like Sudan, Libya and Somalia. Very soon, we will have a sports tournament for International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for Under 18 and the US has just refused to send their team saying the threat level, terror level and security of Kenya are critical. By denying their under 18 team to come for the Junior Athletics Championship, which was to be hosted in the City of Nairobi, the US is telling us they are not really partners with us in hard times and good times. They will pursue their interests. If their interests are to think our country is a critical security threat, at risk and they do not want to expose their athletes to participate in those games, it is a loss of revenue for us. It diminishes the profile of that athletics event. So, we need to engage the US and tell them: “You cannot say on the one hand you are our partner and we will just pass things to push that partnership, but when you feel like pulling the rag from underneath our feet and leave us hanging, you do it very easily”. We need to come to an approach where we are using the Treaty Making and Ratification Act and a comprehensive approach where we are asking for a set of treaties, upcoming treaties and knowing where we are getting the tradeoffs from, especially when we talk about trade and employment opportunities. In this country of ours, we know an emerging issue that so many young people do not have jobs and they want jobs. They want a growing economy that is creating jobs for them. That will include exporting things, whether it is in the agriculture sector or other sectors. This morning, we talked about the Livestock and Livestock Products Development and Marketing Bill. It will also include exporting meat from Kenya, from camels reared by the Leader of the Majority Party and cheese from camel milk to the US. Those things are still close to the market and so, the standards and the non-tariff barriers make sure that great camel cheese from Garissa County cannot reach the shelves in Minnesota where there are Kenyans or Americans of Kenyan origin who want to consume it. We really must make these treaties, negotiate and see where we are doing the give and where we are doing the take in the whole scheme of things and whether we are protecting the interest of Kenyans as well as we enhance our partnerships. With those few remarks, I beg to support. I pray that we will continue to engage well and protect our rights to travel even to the US, so that Kenyans are not blacklisted and Kenya considered one of those countries that should not be sending people to the US. Thank you, Hon. Speaker."
}