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"id": 178480,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/178480/?format=api",
"text_counter": 240,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Foreign Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
"slug": "moses-wetangula"
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"content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise to second this November 26, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3627 Bill. This is a Bill borne out of the foundations in the Constitution that requires this House to play its role of approving Government expenditure. I believe that hon. Members will pass the Bill as presented ably by the Minister for Environment and Mineral Resources, who is also the Acting Minister for Finance. In so doing, he has outlined various allocations of large resources in Kenya Shillings to various Ministries. It is important for us all here, and Kenyans in general, to understand and appreciate that Kenya's economy is not mineral-based. We do not have gold deposits, oil, diamonds or any other minerals, which other countries are luckily endowed with. We are an economy whose backbone is services. We have done reasonably well since Independence, with the economy growing to where it is today, with a GDP in excess of US$30 billion. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in pursuing this growth, I would want to urge all of us - Ministers, Members of Parliament and members of the public - to ensure that the funds and resources being allocated to each Ministry and each sector of the economy are put to good use. It is only that way we can maintain and sustain the momentum of growth of our economy. I want to particularly urge the Ministry of Roads to focus on the dilapidated infrastructure that we see around the country. Whatever limited resources allocated to them should, not only be put to good use, but be put to good use in good time. We can turn the wheel of the economy by moving our products from areas of production to areas of consumption, or from areas of production to points of export. This is the only way that the turnover can be translated into economics of scale that will give this country greater growth. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I also want to urge the Ministry of Transport and the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) to speed up the expansion of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). The JKIA is no longer a point of entry and departure for Kenya alone. It is a hub for the region, augmented by Kenya Airways. We need to see the KAA move speedily and get off the eyesore that we see at the airport, commonly misdescribed as Duty Free Shops when they look like kiosks in a bazaar. The core function of the KAA is not, and cannot be, to litter the airport with the so-called Duty Free Shops selling the same things, including whiskies, cigarettes, chocolates, briefcases, etcetera . The service expected of the KAA is to provide decent transit lounges, waiting lounges and facilities for travellers. They should provide decent facilities for women and children who sometimes stay at our airport for 24 hours. Let them be provided with those facilities to clean up themselves, get a decent meal and find it necessary to travel through Nairobi again. Mr. Speaker, Sir, you travel a great deal, and you must have been appalled by the number of \" kiosks \" littering the First Floor of the JKIA Building, misdescribed as Duty Free Shops. I also want to urge the Ministry of Transport to continue what they are doing to streamline the management of the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), a resource that is capable of contributing immensely to the GDP of this country. The KPA is a major player in our economy and our hinterland covering Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Eastern Congo and Southern Sudan. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I laud the move to open up the Port of Mombasa to operate for 24 hours. However, the operations of that port will not be complete without the capacity and ability of the railway system to roll stocks. We have seen that we have new highways being constructed. Construction of the Mai Mahiu-Nakuru section of the Mombasa-Nairobi-Malaba Road is now complete. Work on the Nakuru-Timboroa section is ongoing. Works on the Nairobi-Mombasa section are nearly complete. However, as long as the railway system is not functional, these roads will be dilapidated within no time. We have to get heavy stocks off the road and roll them through the railway system. Again, I want to urge the Ministry of Transport to focus on the improvement of our railway system. 3628 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 26, 2008 It must move away from the traditional gauge that we have, which has no capacity to handle heavy cargo, and upgrade it to a standard gauge railways line. We should extend the same line to the emerging and growing economies of Rwanda, Burundi, Eastern Congo, Southern Sudan and northern Tanzania. It is exciting to learn that there is a very advanced programme to construct a railway line from the Port of Lamu to Addis Ababa. That, again, will augment the very backbone of our economy because our income or GDP is borne out of services. If it is borne out of services, then we must, as is expected by everybody, be able to provide the best of those services. We must have the Port of Mombasa being the port of choice against alternatives along the East African coastline. Mr. Speaker, Sir, tourism is another major player in our service-based economy. I would like to encourage ingenuity in the Ministry of Roads. They should not wait for Parliament to allocate money, but to go out of their way and negotiate the build operate transfer (BOTs), concessions and so on. One would imagine a situation where we have a dual carriageway from Vanga to Kipini along the coastline. The level of development and tourist facilities that would follow that infrastructure would be enormous. The level of income to develop and improve our economic growth would be admirable. I would want to encourage my colleagues to go out of their way. I am sure that this Parliament will play its role and rise to the occasion and sometimes even give sovereign guarantees where arms of Government, in terms of Ministries, are able to demonstrate that the money they are looking is for the benefit of the people of this country and for the growth of the economy of this country. If we can maintain and sustain a 10 per cent minimum annual growth rate - it is doable - this country will not be choked by unemployment. This country will be able to join medium- developed countries. We have been told many times, and you know so, that at our Independence, the per capita of a country like South Korea was US$267; Kenya's was about US$360 to US$400. Today, the per capita income of South Korea is US$11,400 while that of Kenya is US$600. Definitely, we stand to ask ourselves where we took the wrong turn. This is because the South Korean economy was also not based on any minerals. Their's has been a service economy and so is Singapore. Dubai is growing on services. We can, certainly, also grow phenomenally like all those countries. This country spots the best educated and developed workforce in the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. If you go to any African country today, you will find that doctors, engineers, nurses, teachers and other professionals are Kenyans. If the engine of growth of our neighbours is in the hands of Kenyans, we should be able to do even better in our motherland. It is us here that have a duty, more than anybody else, to allocate funds, to provide oversight and ensure that when we provide money to buy drugs, those drugs must be bought. When we buy those drugs, they should not be put in the pockets of doctors masquerading as private doctors to go and run private clinics. They must be available to assist mwananchi. Mr. Speaker, Sir, let me mention something about the sugar industry because it is the backbone of the economy of western Kenya upon which in excess of 10 million people rely. I want to urge the Minister for Agriculture to continue the momentum started to mitigate the problems that the sugar-cane farmers in this country have had. Sometimes you feel embarassed as a Kenyan when you hear people in the sugar sub-sector crying that we must close off sugar from Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) coming into Kenya so that we can protect the sugar industry. If you look at COMESA, really, between the Kenyan farmer and the one in Malawi or Swaziland, all things being put on scale and being equal, which farmer in which country needs protection from the other? I think it is a whole question of management. Have we managed our sugar industries well? Is it justifiable that we stand here to cry that we must protect the Kenyan farmer from a farmer in Swaziland and November 26, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3629 Malawi? I do not think so. We need major structural legal reforms in the sugar industry. If you go to Mauritius, which is also a service economy, sugar production is a by-product from the sugar industry. The primary products are generation of power and ethanol. Sugar is the third product. I think we need to adjust and change our technology so that the farmer can be paid better from a triple product from one factory where there is ethanol, electricity and sugar as a third product. That way, the farmer will walk away with sufficient income and the cry to protect the Kenyan farmer from his counterpart in Malawi will be a thing of the past. This can be done because technology is available. There is nothing new there because it has been embraced in Brazil, Mauritius and other countries. If we did that, the people that Mr. Okemo, Mr. Washiali and I represent will be more comfortable than, perhaps, tea and coffee farmers in this country. I urge the Minister for Agriculture to double the momentum and call all of us who come from the sugar-growing areas to have our input and see what can be done. If it requires a sovereign guarantee to enable these factories access credit, I am sure this Parliament will not hesitate to do so. That way, we will be in a position to help our people. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to end by making a comment on the cost of farming in this country. The cost of fertiliser, seed, and ploughing is way beyond the affordability of the ordinary person. I want to urge the Ministry of Agriculture--- I said it here this morning that this country and all African countries fell into the trap of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, when they came trading all over Africa with programmes called Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs), which they have now run away from. They do not even mention them. They kept on telling every Government: \"You have no business being in business.\" Mr. Speaker, Sir, you and I know that only the Government can provide affordable cattle dips to wananchi. Only the Government can provide affordable Artificial Insemination (AI) services to wananchi. Only the Government can be able to provide affordable fertilisers and seeds. Otherwise, we hand over our country to middlemen whose drive is greed and profit and nothing else! Mr. Speaker, Sir, when you buy fertiliser from a dealer of whatever race or community in this country, he or she is only driven by one thing: Greed and profit! Even if the prices fell--- Look at the price of oil, crude oil has dropped from US$162 to US$51. But look at the pump prices, they are, again, driven by greed and profit. One would expect that when the price come down from US$162 to US$51 or US$52, those traders and middlemen will have the moral capacity to realise that it is dangerous, immoral and unacceptable to live on the sweat of others by choking in obscene profits. But do they care? Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am a believer in the free-market but, sometimes, I sit back and say: \"Price controls sometimes help.\" It is the only way we can cushion the poor man from avarice, greed and profit mongers. If we do not do that; and unless you regulate the prices, you will not be able to sustain the lives of ordinary people. You wait until next year. Fertiliser is a chemical-based product. Oil prices have dropped from US$162 to US$51. This year, they sold fertiliser to the farmers at a cost of up to Kshs4,000 per bag. Even with that drop in fuel prices, they will raise it, perhaps, to Kshs5,000, unless there is a State intervention. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we are an agricultural country. If we cannot produce enough food to feed our people, and sell some out there, then we will have difficulties in addressing other sectors of the economy. I want to urge the Ministers for Finance and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade to assist this country by coming together and seeing how to control excessive greed in our public and trade affairs. Finally, for the maize farmers, in the old days, we used to have a department called Weights and Measures. That department designed and regulated the measures through which 3630 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 26, 2008 cereals were sold. You went to sell your cereals, there was a measure called Kibaba . Then there was another one called Arobaini . There was another one called Themanini and another one by another name. You were paid a just price for your just produce. Today, the middleman again, when he is buying, the container is twice the ordinary size. But when he is selling, the container is shrunk less than half the ordinary size and the price is the same. Where is the department of Weights and Measures? Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to urge the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Trade to revive the Department of Weights and Measures, so that it can go out there in the field and protect the local producer. My grandmother, your grandmother and your mother is at the mercy of middlemen who come and take what she has toiled and mowed for nine months at a pittance. Then, a month later, she has to go and buy the same at ten times the price the middleman took from her. That is immoral and we should not condone it. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to urge the House to pass this Bill, so that the Government can get enough resources to continue turning around the wheel of development. With those few remarks, I beg to second."
}