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{
    "id": 147023,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/147023/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 342,
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    "content": "the proposal to employ teachers on contract basis. So many teachers are unemployed in this country. What is wrong in sharing out the little resources to those teachers who are unemployed; so that they get some employment and help us to deliver the curriculum? I think the KNUT leadership needs a little training in this regard. So, the Minister did a good job by availing money for the purpose of increasing the number of teachers in this country. Be they on permanent and pensionable employment or contractual bases, it will help the country. It will improve on delivery of the curriculum. It will give our children a better opportunity of being taught. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, food insecurity is a major problem for us, particularly given the fact that we do not have enough rain this year. In many parts of the country, there is evident crop failure. Crops are withering across the country. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance said that he has put aside some money for Bura, Hola, TARDA, Wei Wei and Kerio Valley irrigation schemes, so as to improve on food production. However, if you look at what he has availed for the agricultural sector in total, you will see that it is too little. It is not enough. We also need money for extension services. That is one of the major issues, apart from the changes in climatic conditions. Lack of adequate extension services is doing us a lot of harm in this country. Our farmers need extension services. If resources will be available, this is an aspect that needs to be addressed in future, so that as we avail agricultural services and other things, farmers can also receive ideas on how to improve their production through extension services. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister removed Sugar Development Levy (SDL) on refined sugar and said that this will encourage other investors. To me, this undermines the sugar industry because, the SDL was meant to help develop the Kenyan sugar industry, which is not yet fully developed. It is actually wobbling. It is not doing well. Some of the sugar mills are under receivership. They are not performing well. The SDL was supposed to serve players in the sugar industry. Its removal means that the sugar industry is going to be negatively affected. This is an idea that the Minister for Finance brought forward last year, but it is a bad one. So, this is something that needs to be reconsidered, particularly for the future, so that it is incorporated back. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I remember very well that as we were trying to undertake the constitutional reforms at the Bomas of Kenya, towards the end of the exercise, everything fell apart, and Kenya failed to deliver the new Constitution during the last Parliament. If we are not careful, we might fail again because we are talking too much. It is too much talking that led to hostility among leaders and different groups when we were trying to review the Constitution during the last Parliament. There was so much hostility in the leadership of this country that when we went for the referendum, the Government lost. I can still see that scenario coming up, because leaders are talking too much. We have constituted a small body here to help us review the Constitution. Why are leaders talking too much? The talking that they are doing today can lead us to the same problems we had when we were doing the constitutional reforms during the last Parliament. I do not understand why leaders have to talk in the way they are talking today. They know very well that this Parliament formed the committee to help in the constitutional reforms. Why talk in this forum? They go to funerals and talk about all kinds of things. They go to harambees and churches and do the same. Must they say what"
}