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{
    "id": 1128385,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1128385/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 652,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Saku, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ali Rasso",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13473,
        "legal_name": "Dido Ali Raso",
        "slug": "dido-ali-raso"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I stand to support this very important Bill. As it is, KIRDI existed, but it did not exist at the same time because it lacked infrastructure, funding and output. We did not have it. It appeared to be an institution that was there. Its founders knew what it stood for but, in the end, there was no output. Through this Bill, we are likely to see an institution of this status become a formidable institution that contributes to the productivity and advancement of our country. Research and development is the frontier of discovery. It extends the envelope of discovery such that unless a country invests in research and development, it cannot industrialize, innovate or manufacture. It is the basis upon which certain things are built. All of us travel on Boeing and Airbus. We use Toyota and simple gadgets like TVs and the cellphones. All those equipment and items have been brought into being by companies, individually and in groups. After engaging in research, those individuals or companies came up with gadgets and machinery that have made work and our lives much easier. The major function of this august House is to oversee Government Ministries and State Departments. One of the questions we must ask those we oversee is whether they have a department of research and development. If it does not have, it means that the institution is dead because there is nothing new they are going to come up with. It means that people will walk into offices in the morning and in the evening, they will walk out. They will continue with that routine for as long as they remain consumers of taxpayers’ money. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, research and development is about scientific innovation, mathematics and measurements. It is good to have institutions like the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI), Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI). All of them are research-based, but the fundamental we should ask ourselves is how much cost in terms of funding of their administrative structures they incur. One of the major weaknesses we have found through our interaction with those institutions is that most of them are under Ministries or State Departments. So, their growth is stunted. They are controlled by Ministries and, in the end, they become employment bureaus that consume the taxpayers’ money and produce nothing in return."
}