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{
"id": 183432,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/183432/?format=api",
"text_counter": 198,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Laboso",
"speaker_title": "The Member for Sotik",
"speaker": {
"id": 63,
"legal_name": "Joyce Cherono Laboso",
"slug": "joyce-laboso"
},
"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to address this House. Secondly, I would like to thank, most sincerely, the people of Sotik for giving me their votes. I would like to remind everybody that it was a very difficult task, but the people of Sotik made a very wise decision. Secondly, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to thank my party, ODM. I would like to thank the party leaders and all the ODM fraternity for everything that they did to support me to come to this House. I would also not forget my family, well-wishers, my secretariat and all the supporters for their efforts and sleepless nights to make sure that I come to this august House. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, allow me to say a little bit about Sotik Constituency. First of all, Sotik Constituency really lacks a lot of basic facilities. Sotik has no roads. Even as we debate the Motion on Vision 2030, Sotik is still very much behind in terms of development. We have a lot of development needs. There are no roads. It is not surprising to find the people of Sotik carrying their sick and their expectant mothers in sacks because there are no passable roads for them to use. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to remind you that the people of Sotik have no educational facilities. It is not a surprise to find mud-walled and even mud-floored classrooms in Sotik. It is a common feature! It is not surprising to find teachers teaching in very deplorable conditions. They have very few facilities for the students in the classrooms. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we continue talking about Vision 2030, we need equitable distribution of resources in this country. To expect a child in Sotik to actually compete effectively with the one in a school in Nairobi is not fair. But that is the reality that we have in this country today. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the economic front, I would like to say that Sotik is actually a resource-rich constituency. But the majority of the people are languishing in poverty. That is because agriculture, which is the mainstay of that constituency, has been rendered completely unprofitable! The people are unable to afford the farm inputs. Even the commodities that they produce, they cannot be able to sell them in a profitable manner. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, another issue that I would like to bring to your attention is to, first of all, congratulate the people of Rift Valley for actually taking the lead in electing women to this august House. That is something to be commended. We have seven out of the 22 women in this Parliament. That shows that we are doing our own affirmative action in Rift Valley. I would, then, urge the other provinces to emulate the lead that we have shown in Sotik Constituency. We want to see this House having a 50-50 ratio of women to men, so that we can be able to articulate the issues of women much more in this House. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the same note, I would also say that this country 2850 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 21, 2008 should really continue to invest in women. We need to recognise and appreciate the role that the women of this country are playing. On the youth, it has been said that we need to do a lot more for the youth of this country. They form a big part of this country's population. We need to have programmes that can actually address their needs. We need to take them a lot more seriously and do all that we can to see that they begin to engage themselves in meaningful activities rather than in the destructive activities they have been associated with. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to bring to the attention of this House that we need to take a lead in healing this nation. We know what we went through. I am asking Members of Parliament of this House be serious about reconciling this nation. I am happy with what the President has been doing - going round and speaking peace. The rest of us need to take a lead and do it meaningfully and be serious. People should not just state it with words. We want to see action by the activities they engage in. I will not forget to talk about the universities. We need a lot more funding in our universities. The mandate of a university is to impart knowledge and carry out research. A university is not a money-generating organisation. Therefore, the Government needs to take a bigger responsibility of financing universities a lot more seriously. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I end my speech, I would like to remind hon. Members of this House that Kenyans are waiting with abated breath for a new Constitution. The people of Kenya want a Constitution that will unite them. They want a Constitution that will ensure that we have equitable distribution of resources in this country. The people of Kenya want a Constitution that will ensure that we will never again have to go back to what happened in January. All of us have the responsibility to ensure that we actually meet the promise that we gave of giving them a new Constitution within the year. With those few remarks, I beg to end my speech."
}