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"id": 189913,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/189913/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mrs. Odhiambo-Mabona",
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"speaker": {
"id": 376,
"legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
"slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Vote. I want to thank the Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports for the good work. I want to thank the Minister, especially for providing us with copies of the speaking notes, which give items on the development component that was of concern to me. I know that it is new, but I would encourage this Ministry, and other Ministries, to clearly demarcate the development component in future. I say so, because we do not want to do administrative work, as Members of this House. We do not want to ask Ministries why they make phone calls of given amounts, but we want to contribute as to what amounts they put into development. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to commend the Ministry for the trends that it is setting. If you look at the Ministry's Financial Year 2007/2008 allocation and its Financial Year 2007/2008 allocation, you will see that there is a lot more allocated towards development in the 1782 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 10, 2008 Financial Year 2008/2009. I hope this trend will continue, so that more resources go towards development as opposed to recurrent expenditure. I also wish to commend the Minister, especially for the establishment of the youth empowerment centres. I would want to encourage the Minister that these centres should not just encourage empowerment, but should be centres for job creation. Many times, when our youths look for jobs, they are asked for experience. Since they never get the opportunity to get experience, they find it difficult to get jobs. So, if the empowerment centres could have an employment unit for a year for the youths, to enable them get employment, they would be meaningful. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to lend support to other hon. Members who have indicated that we are in a different era and, therefore, the empowerment centres should focus on ICT and other development areas, as opposed to what we traditionally know. I have seen in polytechnics. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if somebody tells you to go to a polytechnic, the notion has always been that it is a place for failures. It is not a place where you will come out with any meaningful engagement. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are now in a global village. We are not competing within the borders of this country only. We are competing with people from Tanzania, United States of America and other countries. Therefore, our village polytechnics and empowerment centres must be equipped to deal with those realities. Therefore, if we want to empower our youth to be skilful in design, it must be the design of the 21st Century and not the design that my great grandmother dealt with. In that relation, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to urge that, instead of focusing energy in creating a myriad of polytechnics, I want to laud the Minister for actually looking at the model polytechnics. We should actually put more money in them and make them models, not just for Kenya or the next village, but for the world. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to commend the Minister for focusing on marginalized areas. For example, she has focused on districts such as Suba, Tharaka, West Pokot, amongst others. I want to encourage this Ministry to continue doing the same in future. The districts have actually been benefitting from the Kenya-Italian Development. We want to encourage that. For those who have visited those districts, they are extremely poor. They do not benefit from other development items that the rest of the country has. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to comment on the Tana Basin Road Project that intends to use the labour intensive method. Even though that is laudable because it is going to give our youth job opportunities but, at the same time, that may also provide the opportunity for abusing children and young people, especially girls. I want to encourage the Ministry to put in a component for main-streaming human rights, especially when they are working on labour-intensive methods. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know a lot has been spoken about sports and I am not going to speak a lot about it. In relation to the task force that is being set up, one of the criteria that it should have is that, it should only allocate funds to a sporting activity that takes into account women and men activities. Therefore, if it is giving, for instance, Kshs1 million per constituency or per district on soccer, it should only be given if it also promotes girls to play soccer. We know that there is world soccer for even girls at a very high level. I watched that amazing girl call Daniela in the World Cup for women and I hope Kenya will produce for us another \"Daniela\". Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also wish to comment on the recent crisis that we faced. I hope that, through the empowerment centre, that we can also promote cohesion and exchange programmes, so that those who come from central Kenya do not think that the people from Western look like fish; and those from western Kenya do not think that people from central July 10, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1783 Kenya look like potatoes. They need to know that, beyond their borders, there are people who are like them; who think like them and are like them. Finally, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to encourage the Ministry, in future, to allocate a little money to nominated hon. Members to help them in their work. With those few remarks, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support."
}