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{
    "id": 1547209,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1547209/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 742,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Baringo North, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Joseph Makilap",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. The Member for Nyando Constituency wanted the criterion for classification of hardship areas in the country and how it can be applied. If we define hardship areas in terms of how hot or cold they are, we are missing the point. Hon. Speaker, we should define hardship areas as per the availability of road network, electricity, goods and services, movement and transport. We should also look at congestion. Nairobi City County is a hardship area because it is too congested and the cost of living is very high. So, let us look at the whole country. The cost of living in Kenya today is a hardship for everybody, including where children are born. There is a critical need to apply hardship allowance across the Republic of Kenya, so that every person who faces hardship in this country, in one way or the other, will benefit. Otherwise, this will be a selective injustice to parts of Kenya. If we have to apply hardship allowance in accordance with the degree of the sun, or hotness and coldness of a place, then we miss the point in the entire country. We need to fix this matter. For example, Baringo County is a hardship area. However, Eldama Ravine Sub- County does not have a hardship area, yet their neighbours in Elgeyo-Marakwet County—who experience the same degree of coldness as the ones in Timboroa— get a hardship allowance. It is discrimination. Government employees move from that area to other areas looking for a better package. We need to think about Kenya holistically, so that we can have something else, but not hardship allowance, that can be given to all civil servants and government employees across Kenya based on the degree of cost of living and accessibility to the most basic needs of human life. If we do that, we will make Kenya equal for all of us. That is the only way we deal with the hardship allowance. Otherwise, it will continue to be an inequality and injustice for parts of the country. Let us think broadly in a way that can sort the whole country. Otherwise, we shall classify our areas as banditry areas very soon, and we shall demand banditry allowance because bandits make us suffer. Others will have Al-Shabaab allowance because of Al-Shabaab attacks. Let us look for something that will bring uniformity for government employees across the country because of the accessibility of the things that I have said. Thank you very much."
}