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"id": 106694,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Keynan",
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"legal_name": "Adan Wehliye Keynan",
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"content": "Let me continue. You will have an opportunity to respond. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, that particular aspect must be addressed. To this extent, we are saying that the Government of Kenya must launch investigations. We want the Efficiency Monitoring Unit to investigate the circumstances under which a number of officers who had been recalled, including the High Commissioner, refused to come back. We want to know the circumstances under which the High Commissioner completely disregarded instructions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ended up embarrassing the entire population of the Republic of Kenya. I know that he is now back home, but that particular aspect must be investigated. In fact, he was recalled and, as at the time we went there, in late December, 2009, he was still living in that house. So, he stayed there from May to late December, 2009. For three months, he used a dubious medical report from a Nigerian quack doctor to justify his stay in London. I challenge the Minister to also investigate that particular aspect, because the report that he presented to the Government was not genuine at all. It was not legitimate. It was prepared from one of the streets in London. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, he used the same report to dupe the Minister. His first three months extension was genuine, but what happened after that particular period? As a 44 Wednesday, 7th April, 2010(A) result of that approach, the Minister and his team have to date, been reduced to lame ducks, because their instructions cannot be followed. So, that particular aspect must be investigated. I know that the issue of performance contracting will come to the Floor of the House. It will be dealt with by the Prime Minister. We should have bench-marks for performance contracting. Interestingly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not been doing well. So, this is one of the issues that should be addressed. We have put institutions in place to measure the performance, efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation of policies, or even adherence to these policies; it is high time that individuals were held accountable if they have not properly followed the laid down contracting mechanism. I know the same will happen. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we are also proposing that since appointment of High Commissioners and ambassadors has been abused, we feel that appointment of these individuals must be subjected to parliamentary approval. To that extent, as a committee we have decided to come up with a Bill called the Diplomatic Service Bill which has been done by other countries, so that there are rules and regulations governing the appointment of ambassadors and High Commissioners. In this list, we have a mission representing Kenya in Somalia. This mission is housed here. It has an authorized staff of six employees, but the number of people who are there are 17. Do they do anything on behalf of Kenya? The answer is ânoâ. They are there. It is an economic gain for them. There is no diplomatic representation for Kenya. If anything, we should have done what other countries have done: They have pushed this mission to a security zone within Mogadishu, so that we get returns for the money that we pay to these particular individuals. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we also need to review the policy of establishing missions. Why do we need missions in this era of economic challenges and competition? Do we need a mission just to represent political interests? We need missions as part of our enhancement of the economic diplomacy which we have been trying to say we need to adopt. Some of the missions--- I do not want to mention particular countries, because of the challenges involved; but certainly there are a number of missions that need to be closed down, because they do not have the economic interest of the people of Kenya at heart. We will share the list with the Minister, because some of these countries closed their missions here 22 years ago. There is minimal economic relations between Kenya and those particular countries. Why do we spend over Kshs300 million in a country where there is no diplomatic representation in the whole of south of the Sahara, when the trade volume between Kenya and that particular country is zero? The volume of trade between Kenya and Turkey is billions of shillings. There is no diplomatic representation. These are issues that we must address because at the end of the day, we must get returns on our money. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we also need to strengthen the process of getting international jobs. One of the key components of our economic development is investment in education, because Kenyans have gone to school. We need to assist those Kenyans who are candidates for international jobs. As part of our recommendations, we have asked the Ministry to establish Diaspora desks in all our missions, so that those Kenyans who are out there in the name of students and job seekers can get an opportunity to be--- I know the Ministry has a Diaspora Desk here at the headquarters, but that is not enough. We want to have a Diaspora Desk in all the 52 missions, so that Kenyans can be attended to. This will be part of the effort to encourage Kenyans to go to school. We should encourage them not to come back home but to go and seek greener pastures out there. 45 Wednesday, 7th April, 2010(A) Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, as part of rebranding and marketing of Kenya, as an entity, a tourist destination, a communication hub of the region, a very important humanitarian hub in the region and a diplomatic hub--- These are the key roles that we play on behalf of the international community. We need to rebrand our image because of this. That will not come without proper, well thought out diplomatic representation. We must do away with some culture. The era of using our diplomatic representation to assist our relatives and friends to get jobs must come to an end. This culture has encouraged cronyism, corruption, regionalism and has trivialized the essence of having diplomatic representation."
}