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{
    "id": 102501,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/102501/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 245,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Eng. Maina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 75,
        "legal_name": "Ephraim Mwangi Maina",
        "slug": "ephraim-maina"
    },
    "content": "Thank you Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir. I wish to support the Budget with some observations. We, as a country, are developing. We must be clear what sectors of our society we are addressing when we want this country to develop. The issue of the energy sector is very important if this country is to develop. Efforts were made to support the energy sector and consequently, I support them. However, more support and more resources should be put into this sector. Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, my other observation regards infrastructure. I must confess that I am an engineer. It is totally worrying that a country is expected to grow whereas its resources are managed and are in the hands of non-citizens. Over the last five years, the construction industry in this country is only 2 per cent managed by citizens of this country. I consider this not in line with what we want to achieve in order to develop. Countries like the United States of America (USA) and Malaysia developed because their people were involved in their development. When I say their people, I mean the majority of Kenyans. About 98 per cent of Kenyans in this country, we all know, happen to be Africans. In accordance with Sessional Paper No.10 which our forefathers underlined as the guideline for the development of this country, not until we involve the majority of our population, shall this country see real development. We are talking of the private sector being the engine for development. That is fine. But who is in charge of the private sector? If the private sector is managed by non- Kenyans, I regret to say we will be cheating ourselves to think that Kenya will develop. That is why we are going to end up with more and more people who cannot feed themselves. So, it is high time that policies were put in place to ensure the resources of this country, in accordance with the very first Sessional Paper No.10 which was signed by our late President in 1965 and authored by the late Tom Mboya and which even today remains very relevant. It is actually the line that all great countries like the USA, Malaysia, China and all other countries follow. Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, I am very disturbed when we have a Budget of Kshs180 billion which is not going to translate into the employment of the youth in this country. That is the reality. It does not make sense to me at all to have an infrastructural project that costs Kshs5 billion being built and even the manual labourers happen to be non-Kenyans. It does not translate into real effective source of development for this country. It could even be a conduit of wealth export into other countries. I think there is need for this Government to look seriously into formulation policies that ensure that what we are proclaiming to be development for Kenya is real development for Kenya. There is the issue of poverty eradication. We are not going to be able to eradicate poverty until the resources that this country has against the population of this country are involved in managing the resources of this country. I need not over-emphasize that agriculture will remain for a long time the backbone of our economy. We have been told about tourism, we can talk of industrialization by the year 2030, but Kenya with its"
}