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{
    "id": 1201610,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1201610/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 106,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nairobi CWR, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Esther Passaris",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "low and the people will be able to afford the houses. Nairobi has a slum in every corner. The people of Nairobi want better housing. That was part of the four agendas of the Government, and I believe that continuity of programs that are good will be very favourable for this country. The area that I have a problem when it comes to food security is our rush for Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). I believe that in the whole world, if you go to Europe right now, the priciest commodities are the ones that are organic. When we start thinking of GMOs, I believe that we should start treading slowly. As much as we want to feed our people, we have to make sure that we understand that, as a country, we do not just want to feed ourselves but to export our products. We have to think twice and we have to educate our people. With the rising cases of cancer, if we rush to GMOs, we might also end up having a situation where we are increasing our medical costs and we also have Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as a big programme for this country. On the idea of savings, the President said that when you retire, your National Social Security Fund (NSSF) contributions will not be sufficient for you in retirement at the rate of Kshs200. He talked about Kshs2 and Ksh1 coming from the State. That is very good idea. But at the same time, what we have to realise is that if we do not handle corruption, which is the big elephant in the room, then we will be faced with the situation where people are saving and the money is being siphoned out and not invested. I believe that when we save for retirement, one of the things that we should offer our citizens is affordable housing. We see a lot of citizens that have worked very hard, but they can hardly live on the retirement benefits that they get from the Government. When it comes to the borrowing that we have in this county, the President touched on reducing the budget by over Kshs300 billion. The excess that we have to borrow every year of Kshs900 billion is reduced by Kshs300 billion. That is the good initiative but then, we have to ask ourselves where we are going to find that money. I believe that this country loses so much more than the Kshs300 billion to corruption. So, while we are strengthening our institutions, like the Judiciary, the Police Service and we are giving them budgets so that they can sustain themselves, we have to deal with corruption. An area that I had hoped the President would look into is investment and investor confidence. This country right now makes it very difficult for people to invest and bring money into the country. You have a situation where if you want to deposit any money, the maximum that you are allowed to deposit is USD10,000. Many Kenyans have got money outside this country, and they cannot come and bring it. We desperately need that money to come into this country. I believe that we should allow some kind of amnesty to bring in the money and remove the obstacle where you have to deposit only USD10,000, and provide sufficient documentation for it. The problem is that it is stifling many people who are coming into this country to make investments. I believe that not every amount of money that comes into this country of over USD10,000 could be stolen money. But we are making it very difficult for people to come into this country to invest because of the red tape that we have. Kenya is a blessed country, but we have a situation right now which is drought. We need an intervention from the Government. It is sad to see that right now, Kenyans do not have food. In so many parts of this country, children are dying of malnutrition because their parents cannot afford to give them healthy nutritious food. People are dying because there is no food in the country. So, while we talk about the fact that this country does not have enough food, I think the most important thing that we have to address as a country is also family planning. At the moment, we do not have enough family planning in this country. We do not buy commodities. Family planning is dependent on donors. Every country has to plan its population. In Kenya, we have failed to plan our population. In the 1960’s, when Tom Mboya was asked by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC): “What programmes do you have for your country?” The first 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."
}