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{
    "id": 1504269,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1504269/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 180,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Garissa Township, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Dekow Mohamed",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Hon. Speaker, thank you for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the State of the Nation Address by the President. The Constitution requires him to come to Parliament and address the nation on issues affecting this country. For sure, the President addressed many issues of concern to this country and Kenyans. Many of those issues were based on hope. The fact is that we have had a very difficult time during the last two years of his governance and leadership. In addressing the nation, the President addressed very fundamental concerns of our people and country. The improvement of our economy and cost of living is one of the issues he raised. We have, as a country, witnessed improvement of our economy. The fact is that prices of fuel and the dollar have come down. The cost of living, food production, and the prices of food and commodities are coming down. All economic indicators show that this country is heading towards the right direction. This is as a result of the policies and the foundation the President laid since he took over office. As leaders and the people of this country, we all know that the country was doing very badly when this President took office. Now all indicators are that the country is taking a very good direction. Hopefully, we will by the end of this term of five years, go the direction we have taken. We all know the previous two Presidents have tried taking affordable housing, SHA and SHIF head on for the last 20 years. The issues were in all manifestos for the last 20 years. Every presidential candidate promised to implement affordable housing programmes and changing to universal health coverage programmes. They were unable to take that head on. They were unable to take strong positions and decisions on this. I thank the President of the Republic of Kenya, Dr William Ruto, for taking it head on. He has shown leadership and being a very strong leader in taking a strong position on these issues. We all know that there were a lot of fights against implementation of the two programmes; affordable housing and universal healthcare. As I speak and for the first time since Independence, the national Government is undertaking about 1,100 housing units in my constituency. Affordable housing, SHA and SHIF have taken off. More than 70,000 people from Garissa County are registered members of Taifa Care and SHA as we report today. Seven million more Kenyans have joined this programme and we are getting good testimonies from them. They say that the programme is working. This thing would not have taken off had he gone back on the decision he had made on implementing this programme. I hope this country will not let down the President and the people of Kenya. I mean the very poor people who are benefiting from these two programmes. The President talked about another issue: corruption in this country. Corruption is a national security threat for us in this country. We, as a people, of this country must address it. The President or the Executive or this Parliament alone cannot handle it. It is a national cancer that we are all aware of. We must all play our part in ensuring that we fight this thing. Extrajudicial killings and abductions are a very big problem to those of us who are from the northern part of this country. Extrajudicial killings and abductions are very rampant in our region. I hope security agencies of this country have heard the position the President has taken on the issue, that there shall be no more abductions and killing of our people. Thank you."
}