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{
    "id": 1192782,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1192782/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 130,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Bonchari, UPA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Charles Onchoke",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for that clarification in case anyone was thinking that you are favouring me. I rise to support this Motion for a number of reasons, but I am going to cite a few. If this country is going to grow as we all intend to have Kenya grow economically, industrialisation is one of the ways we can achieve this. We will get a bulk of industrialisation from the artisans, what they do and what they contribute to the economy. Secondly, a lot of our youth are in this sector displaying all manner of skills which are under artisans. We know that the population of youth is at about 70 per cent and about 68 per cent are unemployed. Therefore, if we want to tackle the problem of unemployment, we need to support our artisans as a way of mitigating that problem. Thirdly, we have great potential in the international market for Kenyan products which we hardly exploit. An example is under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), in the Unites States (US) market, we hardly exploit the opportunities there. We hardly exploit 10 per cent and, therefore, by supporting our artisans to develop and produce goods and services, we will probably tap that market and take advantage of what has been provided by the US market. We need to be cognizant of the food chain of artisans by being aware of where the ideas are generated and how we can safeguard them so that they are not appropriated by unscrupulous business people and investors, particularly foreign investors. We can do this by protecting the intellectual property rights of the artisans who create these ideas. We also need to nature these ideas so that they are properly developed through institutions by providing adequate financing. An example of how we can achieve this is through Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions. In my constituency, we do not have TVET institutions and I hope by next year, we will have one, so that we can train our artisans and apprentices to enable them contribute to the economy. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I am not very confident that the 2 per cent we are asking for is going to be adequate to support artisans. We need to go back to the drawing board and come up with a figure that will be adequate in supporting artisans since they play a critical role in eradicating unemployment and to the economy. All the economies that are developed and have been industrialised have had to use their innovators and their people who have creative ideas to get to where they are. With this being said, Kenya should not be left behind because of neglecting its artisans. If anything, we should be investing in them so that we can develop and help Kenya become the middle income economy as we all desire. We need to also develop many Silicon Valleys in our regions and constituencies. The way to do this is by having adequate financing, resources and encouraging the people by giving them all they need to make a contribution to the economy. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I beg to support."
}