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{
    "id": 1128354,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1128354/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 621,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Navakholo, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Emmanuel Wangwe",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2543,
        "legal_name": "Emmanuel Wangwe",
        "slug": "emmanuel-wangwe"
    },
    "content": "Director-General or how the Board is supposed to be appointed. The Minister for Education, rather than the Minister responsible for industrialization, appoints one of the Board members to chair the Board. We find this kind of arrangement inappropriate since this is a research institute that is responsible for fostering development in the country. The main purpose of KIRDI is to conduct research and development. Development is the output that we all see when the Institute conducts research that results in innovation. I know most people in Kenya have not visited the Institute’s giant equipment centre on the way to South B in Nairobi. Maybe, you have not walked along that road, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. But there is a big godown just after the flyover next to Kenya Polytechnic, which is currently the Technical University of Kenya (TUK). You will see a wonderful display of machinery and equipment. That is a product of KIRDI. If you want a good mowing machine or hard equipment that is locally manufactured, go there. I want to be a marketing manager for KIRDI today. Please, visit the machinery godown along the South B Road. The products of research that they display in their factory and warehouse are of very high standards. The equipment is manufactured and assembled there. If you look at Section 53 of the Act of 2013, you will see that the Research Institute set out in the Fourth Schedule is established under the Repeal Act to continue to operate as if they had been accredited under this Act. The current law does not really give latitude to KIRDI to operate on its own. It has been tied up and is being held to ransom. Even in terms of decision-making, the management cannot make a decision on anything and move on. As it is today, the Science and Technology Innovation Act state, in Section 14 (b), that the Institute shall undertake more functions beyond what is outlined. It is like someone who is straining to operate outside the law. Conditions in the industry want you to work beyond certain limits, but the existing legal framework does not allow you to operate outside. That is what informs in coming up with this amendment Bill. As per its Report, the Committee has proposed good amendments for consideration during the Committee of the whole House such that, that kind of extraneous working condition is addressed in law to enable KIRDI to carry out its operations within the regulations that are stipulated in the law. Despite all the good work that KIRDI is doing, it has to rely on funding from the Ministry. If the Ministry is headed by someone who is not keen on supporting innovation and research in order to come up with development, the Institute is likely to have problems. I want to thank the current Cabinet Secretary, Mrs. Betty Maina. She is a home-grown research fellow. She is very keen and happy. Her submissions before the Committee is what has given rise to what is happening in terms of making KIRDI a good institution that is autonomous so that we can have a better Institution. I thank Mrs. Betty Maina for this very good idea that she has come up with. This House has funded the construction of the Institute’s new building in South B. If you pass via there, you will be very happy to see the good work of the Departmental Committee on Trade, Industry and Co-operatives. The current Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee was the Chair of the Departmental Committee on Trade, Industry and Co-operatives. He worked hard to make sure that, that project gets to where it is today. He found it and five years later, it is under construction. I am happy that this Parliament will be associated with that new building. I hope the passage of this Bill will enable the Institute to make use of that building to accommodate all its units. With those remarks, I beg to second."
}