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{
    "id": 146335,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/146335/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 287,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Lekuton",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 66,
        "legal_name": "Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton",
        "slug": "joseph-lekuton"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to join my colleagues in congratulating the Minister for Finance, Mr. Kenyatta, for a Budget that is almost entirely positive. Most ordinary Kenyans understand that the Government has made pragmatic decisions that will keep this economy on the right track. Even in the face of the global financial crisis, the Minister made sure that he had allocated some serious Government expenditure to keep the economy going and to make sure that people have the money to spend. That is what responsible governments do in times of recession. President Obama did the same by allocating billions of dollars to stimulate or jumpstart a sluggish economy through Government expenditure on various infrastructures. For too long, previous Budgets did isolate rural areas. They mostly concentrated on urban areas. The 2009 Budget focused on the rural areas mainly in protecting jobs and massive spending on national infrastructure and delivering new community health and education facilities for various constituencies. This translates to economic empowerment and uplifting the livelihood of the common people in the rural areas through economic empowerment. In economics, it is called the trickle-down effect. The more you have, the more you spend. The more you spend the more the economy gets stronger. In other words, spending is the backbone of economic growth. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the 2006 /2007 fiscal Budget, when Mr. Kenyatta was the Official Leader of Opposition, cited that the Budget that was put aside for the youth and arid areas was timely. I quote what he said: “This is the first time issues about the youth are being addressed and I urge the Government to exercise transparency in administrating the fund.” Mr. Kenyatta has done that ten times or more to make sure that the needy in our societies have got more. This Budget supports jobs in a number of ways. First, it supports them through the significant spending programme that the Government has undertaken such as infrastructure. This will clearly go a long way in supporting creation of jobs, infrastructure like buildings, upgrading schools, roads, houses and schools. The other positive aspect of this Budget is the fact that the Minister introduced a new railway line from Mombasa to Uganda. This is a clear indication that this Government and the Minister himself is trying to diversify our mode of transportation. Kudos to him! He did not also forget the disabled. While most Budgets have not in the past taken care of the disabled in our society, this one has. We appreciate that. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister also allocated some money for solar power and other forms of energy. While I do appreciate that, but as Mr. Ethuro put it very clearly, we have the dam in River Omo. River Omo puts 90 per cent of fresh water into Lake Turkana. The main aim is for the Ethiopian Government to produce electricity that the Kenya Government is planning to buy. We have areas around Lake Turkana that are rich in wind. They are capable of producing 30 per cent of the current energy in this country. Why would we destroy our lake? Why would we not exploit our power like wind power and solar in this day and era whereas in 2030 China will produce 25 per cent of its power based on renewable energies like wind power and solar? Those are the things we need to look at. We need to put more money in our environment. Our rivers have stopped flowing. Our forests are disappearing. In this day and age where the rains are not enough, we are"
}