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{
    "id": 1194176,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1194176/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 148,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Hon. Members, as you are aware, this Pan African Parliament (PAP) sits in Midland, South Africa. Therefore, these Members will occasionally need to travel there for sittings of the PAP rather than having Members being elected through universal suffrage. It has become customary that PAP Members are designated by Parliaments or legislatures of the respective member. That is why we go through a process of such a Motion to approve nominees to go and represent the people of Kenya and, definitely, the greater people of the African Continent at the PAP on issues of concern to the people of not just Kenya but Africa at large. They engage on issues to do with economic development and integration of the continent. I want to challenge Hon. Mukami, Hon. Kalasinga, Hon. Esther Passaris, Sen. Mungatana and Sen. Margaret Kamar – if approved this afternoon – to represent our country with honour whenever PAP sits. I urge them to articulate issues that are of concern not just to Kenyans but to Africans at large. We should be a continent and a people who are proud of our own heritage – a people with the determination and zeal to develop our continent together. I want to encourage these Members to engage our colleagues from other countries in the continent region, especially on the question of the African free-trade area. They should also engage our colleagues from the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). The African Continent needs to continuously open its borders. Our continent has very huge potential with a young population. Many countries in Africa have a very productive population that is well educated. Therefore, there are many opportunities we can use through such legislatures to explore opportunities for jobs within our continent and even outside so that we are able to export labour to other continents like the Far East and the West, where populations of young and productive citizenry are dwindling. There are countries, especially in the West and the Far East, whose population is increasingly aging and the working population is dwindling whereas in Kenya and Africa, we have a huge repository of young people who are very educated with good skills. In our own country, we have young men and women who have good skills, and who speak English fluently and are, therefore, able to easily and quickly access job opportunities in English speaking, French speaking and Portuguese speaking countries. Young people in this country have learned these foreign languages and, therefore, we can explore opportunities for them in those countries. It is through fora like Pan African Parliament that we are able to bargain as a continent for opportunities in other continents for our people and also be able to develop our countries in our respective regions, be it through the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and all the other regional blocs. As I said, we need to open up our boarders to ensure that we are all trading. We pride ourselves as a country when we say that our largest bilateral trading partner is Uganda. That is the way it should be and the balance of trade between us and our regional neighbours should not be so huge. We should be able to export what we are able to export to Uganda. For instance, at a time like this, when we have drought and probably Uganda, Zambia and Tanzania have maize and other food commodities that we could import from them, we are able to do so without unnecessary hindrances and barriers of trade. Hon. Speaker, I do not want to say much. I want to request Hon. Robert Mbui, the Deputy Leader of Minority and Member for Kathiani, to second the Motion. I beg to move."
}