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{
"id": 1626436,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1626436/?format=api",
"text_counter": 112,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": null,
"content": "I make the case that I believe that the Committee in agreeing with the recommendations of the CRA did something Solomonic. This is because I would still find it difficult to face certain sections of my county, for example, and tell them that I passed a Bill here on equalisation funds to take resources to certain parts of the country by consideration that generally or traditionally, they are considered to be poor, yet they will show me and justifiably so, that even us, we live in worse or as harsh conditions as those from the particular counties. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the same can be said of all these 1,424 sub-locations that have been listed in the second marginalisation policy. Therefore, if my colleagues hold the view that it was a wrong departure by the CRA and also with us agreeing with them, then I believe that this is the year that the CRA is doing their consideration of the third policy on marginalization. It will be interesting to see what the present Committee will do with them. It will be important to convince us, as a House, to know why we need to depart from that logic. Colleagues, for your information, that Committee was chaired by a Senator from the North, Sen. (Eng.) Muhamud, who represented an extremely marginalised county, Mandera. However, when the facts and figures were tabled, he could not help, but agree and say that it was justifiable. That is what we need to do as a country. That any time we are making decisions on policy, determination or on any aspects, we should consider the true facts as they are. The bigger challenge we have as a country and something that we must do over time, if we, as Parliament, are to respond to the growing needs of our people and the scarce resources that we have to distribute, we must move to levels which have been done by other countries that have found themselves in states and situations such as what Kenya finds itself in. For example, I know for a fact that generally, in a country like India when they want to pass a subsidy of any nature, it is possible to identify direct individuals who qualify under that bracket and say; even if you are buying the same item, Mr. Aaron Cheruiyot, you cannot pay the same price for that item with your house or domestic worker where they live because you have a better spending power than that individual. Mr. Speaker, Sir, as it is today in our country, 60 years later after Independence, when we want to pass a policy on bread, a favourite item that I keep on using; and we believe and wrongly so, that if you pass subsidy on bread like we do - and that is why we zero rate it - we have helped accommodate the poor that feed on it. While that may be true for many of us that are in the urban settings, it is not an accurate representation of the consumption of that item in the morning by almost 70 or 80 per cent of the citizens of this Republic. Secondly and most importantly, even for us who are in urban settings, there should be a price differentiation between those who live in certain affluent neighbourhoods and can afford to pay slightly better and those who actually deserve it. It is until we do something akin or similar to what the CRA did in the transition from the first to the second marginalisation policy that we will say that as a country, we are indeed looking after the welfare of those that are not as endowed as others. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}