Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1276942,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1276942/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 248,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Rural, WDM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. David Mwalika",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "strategic. However, others have become obsolete. There is a parastatal called the Kenya National Trading Company (KNTC). Despite knowing about its existence, I only heard about it recently. It was supposed to do distribution of commodities, especially food in the country, but it was overtaken by events. Most of these parastatals are a burden to the Exchequer. I sit in the Committee of Finance and National Planning. Do you remember KQ? We gave it Ksh40 billion to bail it out. Very many parastatals have become a headache. We need to relook at these parastatals and see if they are relevant. If they are not, we just sell and forget about them. Currently, they are taking a lot of money from the Exchequer, which could be used for important social economic provisions like water, especially in the Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) areas. I like the findings the Committee has come up with. At times you wonder how these accounting officers were recruited. If you are an accounting officer, you must have qualified accountants doing your work. If you are a CEO of a parastatal, you should have knowledge of basic accounting principles so that you can understand and appreciate accounting. This points to what the Report is stating, that people are recruited based on ethnicity and corruption. That is why we have found ourselves in the place we are in. We employ unqualified people to positions. We should employ competent people so as to get value for money. That is why most parastatals are non-performing. They cannot account for money given to them. I think the current administration should start employing qualified people. On the unsecured/untitled land holdings, this is room for corruption. Most schools and colleges have lost land because they lack title deeds. The Government should come up with a policy where Government institutions are given titles free of charge. If you ask poor parents of a primary school in my constituency to raise Ksh200,000, where will they get that kind of money? So, Government should give schools and institutions title deeds free of charge. They should not be charged. Why charge a Government institution money which will go to the Ex- chequer and tomorrow take the same money to the school? My proposal is that we should not charge Government institutions for title deeds. On long outstanding constructions, these are works which were unplanned. If there was proper planning, we would not have incomplete buildings. Budgets should be planned in such a way that there is provision to complete projects. This country is having debts because of many uncompleted projects yet we borrowed money from donors. We are paying for something we are not benefitting from. So, the National Treasury should give enough allocation for completion of projects. Lack of equity in employment is a serious issue and we are seeing this in the power sector. Currently, the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, the CEOs of Kenya Power, Kenya Pipeline, and the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen)…"
}