Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 157639,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/157639/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 286,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kosgey",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Industrialization",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 177,
        "legal_name": "Henry Kiprono Kosgey",
        "slug": "henry-kosgey"
    },
    "content": " Thank you Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for noticing me to be able to contribute to the Presidential Address. I wish to support it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have faced a number of challenges in this country. We have pledged ourselves to be a middle income industrialized country by the year 2030. In order to be able to achieve that, we need to do certain things. One of the things we need to do is to attract investors, both local and foreign, to put their money in this country so that we can get our young people employed. That way, the hopelessness and desperation we see in our country can be brought to order. One of the things that we need to do is to create an enabling environment for investors to come to this country and put their money here. We need to create confidence. One aspect, which we Kenyans do best, is politics. We need to do the right kind of politics and send the right messages, so that investors can know that they can come to this country to invest and their money is secure and they will get good returns. So, as we have said categorically, we need to embrace dialogue. From now onwards, we need to make sure that dialogue is the guiding principle in whatever we do. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, to this end, I wish to congratulate you for your historic ruling that saved this nation. The nation had been waiting very anxiously for your ruling. The ruling that you delivered last week gave a sigh of relief to all Kenyans. Now there is hope. We were reaching a situation where we did not have hope. You created that hope and now we can move forward. We hope that the two principals; the President and the Prime Minister, can continue from where you left in creating the right environment for investors to invest in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one other aspect is that of security. Everybody knows that it is the duty of any Government to protect lives and property of its citizens. That is the primary purpose why a Government exists in the first place. In Kenya, we have seen a situation where there are vigilante groups; whether legal or illegal, taking the law into their own hands. We must ask ourselves why vigilante groups see the need to organize themselves and take the law into their hands like they did in Central Province. Why do wananchi have to do so? They are doing so, because the security arm of the Government has failed to provide security to them. This was wrong. They thought one way of defending themselves is to arm themselves against this “force” which is existing, which the Government cannot deal with. That is not the right way to go. We need our security forces to be alert all the time and protect our people. They must create the right environment for investors to come in. Nobody would want to invest in an insecure environment. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one other aspect is infrastructure. I want to touch on one very important aspect of infrastructure in this country. That is energy. Energy is a very important input in industry. I am glad that the President touched on this issue. We need to explore cheaper sources of energy. At the moment, energy costs industries US cents 22 per kilowatt-hour. Other countries like South Africa and Egypt pay 5 US cents per kilowatt-hour. It, therefore, means that manufacturing in this country is very expensive. Our goods cannot be competitive in the regional or global markets. So,"
}