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"id": 183438,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/183438/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Dr. Eseli",
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"id": 141,
"legal_name": "David Eseli Simiyu",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance to contribute to Vote 06, Ministry of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030. Indeed, at the risk of sounding monotonous, I wish to say that failing to plan is planning to fail. But the biggest folly is planning and failing to follow those plans. This country has done that since Independence. We plan, but we do not follow those plans. The worst bit of it is to plan shoddily, because the outcome will be shoddy. With all due respect to the Minister, whom I respect very much, the estimates you have given for things like feasibility studies and things like \"per district\", is really a pittance. It will not help your District Development Officers (DDOs) to actually plan. In the same breath, I wish to thank you for posting as many DDOs as you could to the new districts. I think it is a very big help and we will be able to get somewhere. But, then, unless those DDOs are empowered, they will not be able to function. We can try as much as we can by following your ruling that CDF Committees should do a constituency strategic plan. But that is about all that we will be able to assist the DDOs with. The DDOs have to come up with the rest. So, we need to be very careful because we can make plans. But if we do not put the resources or capacities in place to fulfil those plans, there will be no point. I have seen drawings of super highways that we are imagining we will have in this country or City sooner or later! But do we have the capacity among our local contractors to achieve that? What has the Ministry done to plan for the local contractors to be able to actually rise to that occasion? That is because planning is not just about putting things on paper. It is about preparing to actually utilise them. As I have kept on saying over and over again, development is not an accident. Development is a concerted effort by our people to move in a particular direction. In that case, that direction is going to be spearheaded by the Ministry of State for Planning, Nation Development and Vision 2030. So, we if we could avoid some of those things and plan well, I am sure we could get somewhere. At the rate that this country is going, we are all relying on land. There are land wars. Clashes are about land. Everything is about land. Yet, we know very well the reasons that cause a lot of pressure on that land. The population is growing, but the land is not increasing. So, that pressure is causing the explosion. So, we have got no choice but to industrialise. This Ministry is the one to plan for us to industrialise. We should start with the census that the Ministry is envisaging to do in the coming year. We should avoid the pitfalls that censuses have had in the previous years! They have been more controversial than helpful. Previously, censuses have provoked more questions than answers. I hope that this time round, the census will not be more controversial. It should give us the statistics that we require to push us forward with good planning. The other thing that I need to know is about CDF. There are so many loopholes and stumbling blocks. You wonder who wags who? Is it the dog that wags the tail or it is the tail that wags the dog? You find a district accountant and a DDO there! All of them put road blocks so that you cannot move. Exactly, who controls it. Is it the CDF in the constituency, the district accountant or DDO? Who controls it? When a constituency committee approves a certain project, the district accountant plays hide and seek. So, who actually is the boss here? I think we need to come out very clearly so that we do not have any of those people delaying development for the people. In the same breath, the 2.5 per cent, while it is very welcome, we should look for a way of increasing it gradually to 10 per cent. The CDF has had a very big impact on the development of this country. It is tremendous and has been recognised internationally. People are coming to Kenya to see what CDF has achieved. Indeed, when we talk of devolution of resources, CDF should be the flagship of devolution of resources. The other issue is about other funds that exist within the Ministry of State for Planning, October 21, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2857 National Development and Vision 2030. Indeed, many of us Members of Parliament are not aware of them. We are not even aware of how we can access them for the benefit of our constituencies. Because the country is so far back in development, we need to come out very open and let hon. Members know which fund we can access through what system so that we get development down to their constituencies, instead of having these funds used without people knowing what they are all about. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, today, I was very happy to see the Assistant Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports seconding this Motion. This is because I believe that co-operation is what you require. I believe that after the census, the Ministry will realise that we have got a very large number of youths in this country and yet, we do not even know what to do with them. Whatever number of jobs we want to create anywhere might not be able to absorb all these youths. Our education system does not create entrepreneurs; rather, it creates job seekers. I hope, together with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the Ministry of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030, you will plan for the youths so that after formal school, we are able to come up with projects that teach basic entrepreneurship. That way, they will rely on themselves in future. I hope that co-operation was not just for the purpose of seconding the Motion, but the beginning of greater co-operation so that the youths can be taken care of. I am saying that because the Minister for Finance, on Budget Day, said that he had allocated Kshs1 million for football to every constituency. I wondered: \"Did he ask the Minister of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030?\" The constituencies are not the same! The number of youths in every constituency is not the same! How do you give Kshs1 million to every constituency? I am sure he did not consult the Minister of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030. Now that Mr. Oparanya is working together with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, I am sure he will work round this matter and make sure that those kinds of things do not happen, so that we get adequate funding for each group. We should not perpetuate the inequality that has continued in this country for so long. Lastly, I think, as Members of Parliament, we need to go out there and plead to Kenyans to just stop stealing for five years. Just stop stealing for five years! If they stop stealing for five years, this country will develop. Kenya is \"leaking\" money; not even leaking, it is actually haemorrhaging money. We are just haemorrhaging money. That is why all foreign crooks want to come to Kenya and get a piece of the action. So, the Minister of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 has a big role to play. Please, let us make sure that we educate our Kenyans to stop stealing for five years. They will make his work easier. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir."
}