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{
    "id": 191439,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/191439/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 385,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Kones",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 53,
        "legal_name": "Julius Kipyegon Kones",
        "slug": "julius-kones"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance to support the Motion. I do not want to repeat what other hon. Members have said. The Minister has really tried to address the issue being raised here. However, the answers he has given are unsatisfactory. About three weeks ago, we requested for a Ministerial Statement on the Safaricom IPO. That Ministerial Statement is yet to be brought to this House. Probably, some of the issues that the Minister tried to explain today would have been thrashed at that time. It did not happen. Regarding the sale of Grand Regency Hotel, I think there was a problem on the valuation of the property. I asked some private valuers to give me a rough estimate of the value of the hotel. They gave me a conservative value of about Kshs5 billion. I looked at that figure and asked myself if that is, indeed, the actual value of Grand Regency Hotel. The Minister sold it for Kshs2.9 billion. I will still take the figure he gave. There is a difference of about Kshs2 billion, which is lost. Now, when I looked at that Kshs2 billion, I went to the Budget of last year. I saw that the Development Vote for the Ministry of Labour is Kshs260 million. Now, if we saved the Kshs2 billion which was lost, it would be enough to run the Development Vote of the Ministry of Labour for the next seven years! If that amount was given to my Constituency Development Fund at Kshs45 million per year, I would not ask for money here for the next 44 years! Now, what I am trying to say is this: On this 1610 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 2, 2008 only one transaction, there is so much that, as a country, we have lost. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have been talking about the distribution of resources to the needy areas. Now, when I look at the whole scheme, it appears to me that there was a grand scheme to mop up all the finances to a few individuals in this country. I want to agree with the Minister to some extent, when he hinted that in this whole scheme, he is not the only one. I believe it is a network of some individuals who are highly placed locally---"
}