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"id": 157641,
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"content": "we need to find cheaper sources of energy. We have no option, but to do so. In the meantime, we find our energy bills are inflated. There are so many levies. When industries receive their bill, there is even a new levy called inflation adjustment levy. There is also fuel adjustment, Electricity Regulatory Board (ERB) levy, rural electrification levy and Valued Added Tax (VAT). By the time you add up all these levies, you find it is more than double the actual bill. We need to remove all these levies, particularly for industries. We need to have a new tariff, which would assist industries to manufacture competitively in this country. Industries are not asking for a favour. We can be a free market if we are able to manufacture competitively. We need a level playing field for all industries within the COMESA or African region, so that we can compete. Kenyans have shown that they are industrious and very hardworking. They can compete with any country, so long as the right environment and costs are in place. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, a lot has been said about reforms. It is now 20 years since we started talking about constitutional reforms. It is about time that we actually had a new Constitution. This is a challenge to the Tenth Parliament. We must deliver this new Constitution. We have seen what happened during the last elections. If we had a new Constitution, probably, we would not have gone through what we went through. Unfortunately, because of the bickering that went on after Bomas and doctoring of the document, it was not passed. We hope that this time, the Tenth Parliament will give Kenya a new Constitution. Other institutional reforms are required. We hear quite often; âOh! We need to change this or that personality. We need to change the Chief Justice and so on.â It is not a person that we want to change. We want to bring in institutional reforms. We want to reform the judiciary, the police force and other sectors or institutions in our country to conform with present day realities. Some of these institutions still operate with very archaic laws that were enacted during the colonial times. We need to change all that. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to say something about the food situation in this country. It is very saddening that 40 years after Independence, year in, year out, we see hunger, starvation and lack of food devastating half of our country. Yet, we know that we can feed ourselves. We must create the necessary will to feed ourselves. We now know that rain-fed agriculture is not the answer. We now know that the answer to our food security situation is irrigation. We need to go very quickly into the area of Ukambani and create the necessary dams for irrigation. We also drill dams in North Eastern Province for irrigation. We also need to have irrigation schemes in the Upper Rift region such as Turkana and Pokot areas. We do not need to have expensive schemes. We can have modest schemes, which can be operated by wananchi. We really need an urgent measure to make sure that we are able to feed ourselves, so that what we see on our television screens, year in, year out, is eliminated in this country. We know that a country that cannot feed itself cannot really boast of being a nation. So, we need to make sure that we are able to feed ourselves from now. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, while I was on energy I forgot to mention that the primary reason why Panpaper closed down was because it could not pay its energy bills. The energy bill of Panpaper went as high as Kshs300 million a month and, therefore, it had to close. I wish to assure the people of Webuye and all Kenyans that we will revive this factory. Hopefully, come next financial year, we shall move in and get it running."
}