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{
    "id": 120363,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/120363/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 296,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Government has been very popular with borrowing money to buy food to feed its citizens. There was a loan we approved in this House recently to enable the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) buy food. The Kshs7 billion loan that we approved can revolutionise agriculture in this country. If the Government can invest that amount of money, we will be able to produce food locally to feed our citizens. I would say that what has been happening is that the same Government is conniving with business people to exploit its citizens. I have seen businessmen donate huge sums of money during Harambee . Money must have a source. This money is coming from somebody who is being exploited and that somebody is a Kenyan. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have a case of Safaricom Limited. Communication is a very basic requirement the world over. Safaricom Limited makes very huge profits. Kenyans have complained time and again that the cost of airtime is very high. When my constituents want to speak with me, they “flash” me so that I can call them back. I know that most of them are dignified persons, and they would want to speak with me. If this can be regulated, over and above the essential goods that have been proposed by Eng. Maina, we will have a country with a more robust economy, because communication is essential to economic growth. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have been to the remote areas of Rangwe Constituency. Whenever I get to Nyangweso, the war cry there is the prices of food. This would range from the listed commodities in this Bill, including paraffin, bus fair and maize meal. It is important that the Government looks at these issues very seriously, if we are to live up to the reality of being concerned about the well being of our citizens. In Kenya, we are preoccupied with implementing the policies of developed countries. That is why we hear this talk; that we cannot go back to the days of price regulation. It is important that the Government takes responsibility of its affairs for the benefit of its people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know that there are agreements that are being discussed today, namely, the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). If you look at most of those EPAs, you will realise that they do not have the interests of our country at heart. They are securing agreements that will keep us in bondage to their economies forever. Once the EPAs are signed, we will find ourselves in the same fix we find ourselves today; of being signatory to the Rome Treaty. Now we cannot run away from the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Mr. Moreno Ocampo. Immediately we enter into those treaties, we cannot run away from them. It is, therefore, imperative that the Government looks at the EPAs with the interests of its citizens at the top. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other thing I want to talk about is the Tanzanian case. Kenya prides itself as having practiced capitalism to where we are today. If you look at our per capita income today, it stands at about Kshs35, 611 per annum. That, however, does not mean that every Kenyan gets Kshs35, 611 per annum. I mean that on average every Kenyan should have that based on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The reality, however, is that a Kenyan citizen living in Turkana does not see Kshs100 in a year. Much as he does not see Kshs100 in a year, he has a right to live. He has a right to food and a right to lighting in the night. He also has a right to wash himself."
}