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"id": 192744,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/192744/?format=api",
"text_counter": 213,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ms. Mbarire",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Tourism",
"speaker": {
"id": 78,
"legal_name": "Cecily Mutitu Mbarire",
"slug": "cecily-mbarire"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this very important Motion. At the outset, I want to congratulate the Minister for coming up with a Budget at a very difficult time in the history of this country. Nonetheless, I would like to make some comments on issues that I feel are touchy and important for us to look into. I think the idea of zero-rating some of the food products was very good. That was on wheat, bread and rice. But I want to say that, that is not the end of it all. Even after zero-rating, we still have very many Kenyans who are not able to buy those commodities. We still have very many Kenyans who live below the poverty level. They live under a dollar a day. Therefore, that still becomes an issue. But I think it was a good step to zero-rate. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need to start thinking why our food prices are going up. It is because the supply is diminishing by the day. There is climate change. There is a huge demand in India and China. So, we need to ask ourselves how we will ensure that we have adequate supplies of the same in our country. If that was the line we were looking at, and which the Minister was looking at when he was coming up with his Budget, then he should have seriously thought about the areas of agriculture and water. The two sectors go hand-in-hand. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Ministry of Agriculture was given only 1.78 per cent of the national Budget. To me, it is too little and will have no impact in the long run. We have heard of farmers crying about the increase of prices of vital farm inputs. During the last planting season, many farmers were not able to plant their crop with fertilizer. Everybody knows that the prices of fertilizers were very high. To date, it still remains prohibitively high. I think it will not be possible for farmers to continue improving on their crop input, and improve the output, if the prices of fertilizers continue to be this high. The Ministry of Water and Irrigation received only Kshs6 billion. With climate change, leading to rainy seasons that are no longer reliable, irrigation is the way to go. Most of our land is not arable. Therefore, we need to look into ways of ensuring that we make it arable. To me, Kshs6 billion is too little, if we, really want to improve the output of the amount of food that we produce in this country. Let me give an example. If we give enough water for irrigation in Ukambani, for example, that region can produce a lot of food for the rest of the country. However, with this kind of budgetary allocation, and serious dams of irrigation, for example, costing about Kshs500 million, Kshs6 billion still remains below par in terms of my expectation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I hope that the Minister will, in future, think of putting more money into agriculture and irrigation and allocate less to the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS), for example, which received Kshs8 billion. The question that one would want to ask is why the Minister would give Kshs8 billion to the NSIS, which has a staff of 1,500 when he knows that this money is needed for more important activities that would benefit the mwananchi . We do not just need to give money. We, as a nation, need also to understand our priorities: Where do we want to go? I feel that this money was a waste. We need to know more about it. What is it being used for? We know that the NSIS is shrouded in a lot of secrecy, but I strongly believe that this money is too much to be given to one body at a time when we are all tightening our belts in order to manage the hard economic times that are ahead of us, as a nation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, fuel prices continue to rise by the day. It is becoming increasingly expensive to run vehicles in this country. While I know that the escalation of fuel prices is an international issue, nothing was provided in the Budget to cushion Kenyans. We had hoped that we were going to see the Minister do something about it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to touch on an issue that is very dear to my heart - the issue of youth and unemployment. During the Ninth Parliament, the Youth Enterprise June 24, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1357 Development Fund (YEDF) was founded by the Ministry of Finance. The first amount of money that was given to the YEDF was Kshs1 billion. The YEDF, subsequently, received another Kshs1 billion. Now, the YEDF has been allocated more Kshs500 million. Therefore, the Kshs500 million allocated to the Fund through this Budget is very little. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if we want to make meaningful impact on the lives of young people out there by enabling them to earn a living, we have to be committed to their cause. I saw that the Minister took a whole chapter talking about youth and employment. I had hoped that those good words were going to translate into actual financing. Kshs500 million, for me, is a big joke. We need more money for young people. But even what has been there has not been reaching the pockets of the youth. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the reason the Youth Enterprise Development Fund was founded was because young people do not have collateral to access loans. Young people do not own property to use as security for credit facility. However, we know that many of the banks that receive that money to distribute on behalf of Government have introduced extra conditions. In my constituency, I have come across young people who have gone to the banks as individuals and they have been told that they cannot get the money as individuals, and that they must go as groups. When they go as groups they are given Kshs30,000. Now, if we truly mean to help young people and empower them, we have to do away with those conditionalities, and have to be serious with what we want to achieve at the end. When you give out Kshs30,000 to a group of 50 young men or women, do you really expect to see results out of that? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are giving this money at a time when the economy is hurting. Do you really expect to see results out of that money? I think we need to be a little more serious if we want to help young people. I know that some banks are even saying: \"Go and get your father to come and sign as your guarantor\"; or: \"If you have a television bring the receipt for the television\". What was the whole purpose and rationale of coming up with the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, if we are now putting conditions that the young people cannot meet? I personally think that there is a big problem with the way the Youth Enterprise Development Fund is being managed. Those banks that receive the money on behalf of the youth of Kenya, should be held accountable for what they are doing. They must account to Kenyans as to how much of that money they have been able to disburse and what the results for their work are. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank the Minister because he thought of sports as a very import tool for the development of young people. While he is giving us Kshs1 million for each constituency, for me, this should not be a one-off activity, where this year every constituency plays football, buys uniforms, undertakes tournaments and it ends there. We must consciously work towards exploiting the potential of young people in sports, so that we do not just keep them busy, so that they forget they are unemployed and stop taking drugs and alcohol abuse. We should think of how we can improve them as professionals in the field of sports. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am sure that out there in the villages there are many young Oliechs whom we can develop. This amount of money to be given to each constituency will come to nothing, if we cannot develop the talent in the youth and expose it nationally and internationally. I hope that we are not going to tire our young people with football for the next one year and every where there will be sports going on, and after that, we take it that we are through with it and no more money will be allocated. We want this to be a national annual activity, and this money should continue to be given every year. Beyond that, we should start training academies in sport in every constituency supported by Government, so that we can develop, not just football skills, but also skills in athletics and in all other sporting activities. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you come to areas where there are rivers, like where I come from, we would like young people to learn how to do rafting. This is because it has become 1358 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 24, 2008 a sport that also attracts tourists, and they can earn a living out of it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to raise the issue of rural electrification, which has been allocated Kshs6.8 billion. I think that is an area that the Minister has consistently continued to support and we must applaud that move. As a way of ensuring that young people gain employment at the rural level, we need electrification in every village and centre, so that they are able to start income generating activities. That way, we can also have Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in our areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I strongly believe that it is time for Parliament to get involved in the Budget making process from the beginning to the end. We should approve the Motion for the establishment of the budget office. What is happening? Why has the budget office not become operational? With those few remarks, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support."
}