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{
    "id": 1105646,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1105646/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 328,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiharu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ndindi Nyoro",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13370,
        "legal_name": "Samson Ndindi Nyoro",
        "slug": "samson-ndindi-nyoro"
    },
    "content": "understand that for an economy to thrive, it has to be equal. For an economy to thrive, we need to involve everyone to be an active participant in the growth and productivity of that economy. That goes to explain why in our country at the moment, there is need to support people in many forms, especially those who are in the lower cadres. Even the bursaries that we give are a form of security net. Even the cash transfers that we give to the elderly who are over 70 years explain the same. For an economy to thrive properly, all the people that we currently support need to fend for themselves. The best way to do this is for us as leaders, and especially the Executive, to have policies that give them the opportunity to be productive agents within our economy. I say so because if you compare the current regime led by President Uhuru Kenyatta with the regime of President Kibaki, there is a stark difference. Most of us went to university during President Kibaki’s regime without the need for bursaries. It is not that we came from wealthy families. My father was just a carpenter and my mother was a peasant farmer, but because the economy was productive and there was money to be made, most of us just thrived within the same. We made it even through hardships. However, in the current administration and the current times, those at the lower strata in our society need direct support from the Government because there are very few avenues and opportunities for them to make a living and extra income to support their children in school and also live a better life. If you look at the current global trends, 1 per cent of the wealthiest people in the world have twice the wealth of 6.9 billion people in the world. When you combine the wealth of the billionaires of the world, that is, those who have a net worth of more than US$1 billion, they have as much wealth as 4.6 billion citizens of the world. That goes to explain the kind of inequality that we are faced with in this era. I am giving a credible data from Oxfam. Even as we make wealth and announce Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth every now and then, GDP cannot be eaten. You cannot pay school fees using GDP. You must use the money in your pocket. That is why even in economics, there is something we call the Gini coefficient. Every now and then, the National Treasury and the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) claim that our GDP is growing, but we do not go further to question who the beneficiaries of that created wealth are after the growth of the economy. Unfortunately, the Gini coefficient that measures the inequality between the rich and the poor in our country is just around 4.6. One means extreme inequality and zero depicts an unequal society. Another very unequal society in the world, which is actually number one on the list, is South Africa. The kind of chaos that happens quite often in South Africa is bred by the gap between the haves and the have-nots. If as leaders, and especially those in the Executive, we do not draft policies that distribute the growth of our economy to as many people as possible, we will also be breeding chaos in our country. It is sad to know that every Kenyan knows the kind of wealth that we are creating in this country. We usually read about GDP growths and say that the economy is growing, but unfortunately, the majority of the 47 million Kenyans still wallow in poverty because the created wealth is concentrated among not more than 10 families. The “super four” families are taking over all the wealth that is created in our economy. Therefore, we continue to have an economy where majority are wallowing in poverty while the little that is created by technology and any other form of production in our country is concentrated among a few. That is why many Kenyans remain as robots who keep voting for the same few families that keep using the same power that we give them to dominate us even further to perpetuity. We need to address that matter because inequality is not a good thing to be encouraged. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}