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"legal_name": "John Dache Pesa",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to contribute on the Budget Speech. As it has been mentioned, my names are Mr. Dache John Pesa, the Member of Parliament for Migori Constituency. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to say that the Minister must have done a lot of work to come up with this particular Budget which apparently takes care of what Kenyans are aspiring to and expecting. Early this year we experienced a state of anarchy; where we saw Kenyans set fire on each other, a situation that many of us never knew that we would live to witness. We have had some problems in this nation that we would like the Minister to continue addressing as he continues with this Budget. One area where Kenyans have had a lot of problems is equitable in distribution of resources. We have seen that some of the areas have been neglected when it comes to distribution of resources. Corruption has lived with us for quite sometime now and it has caused many Kenyans to live in poverty. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is the first Budget of the Grand Coalition Government which was formed in the spirit of give and take. I am sure, the Minister captured this point very well in his Budget. One of the reasons that caused problems in our country at the beginning of this year was the failure by the Bomas delegates to come up with a Constitution that Kenyans wanted. This has caused a lot of hiccups here and there. After the Minister read the Budget Speech, many of us did not really understand why the new constitution was not factored. I am glad because, later on, the Minister said he will get funds from the Consolidated Fund to take care of the constitutional review, which I think is very important. If that is done, we expect that what he has put done and what we have been promised will not be changed in the long run. 1308 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 19, 2008 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the education sector, the Minister did very well to promise that he will make sure that he improves on this sector. We want to thank the Government for the free primary education programme that is currently on and the subsidised secondary education. At least, it is doing a lot for many of our poor families which could not afford fees in the secondary schools. One area that the Minister must come up and address very strongly is the under-staffing in most of our secondary schools. You find that in a school which goes up to form four, officially, there is only one TSC teacher posted there. That is the principal of that school. Whatever type of person you can imagine of, he or she cannot cover all the subjects that are taught in such an institution. This is an area that we have ignored for quite some time now. I do not understand why this is so, when the officers of the Ministry of Education understand that such situations disadvantage students. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to Early Childhood Development (ECD), the Government has spent quite a lot of money training teachers. But up to now, there has not been a programme which will employ these teachers in our schools, so that they can take care of the very young children in our society. The type of teachers we have in our nursery schools are those that actually have not undergone any training and definitely we do not expect much from them. I am calling upon the Minister to consider employing these teachers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have had a lot of sub-divisions in our various districts and constituencies. The old Migori District has now had to be divided into three districts; Kuria, Migori and Rongo. However, earlier on we tried to pool resources together to put up some model centres of learning in certain schools. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, at the moment, when you look at Migori, we do not have good schools that can take care of our students, who would like to proceed to universities. I, therefore, request the Minister to consider building at least two model secondary schools in each district, so that we can have access to university education in these areas. There is this very important issue of the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). At least we have had some level of equitable distribution of resources in this nation with the birth of the CDF. I do not see why the Minister cannot extend his good heart and hand to ensure that this Fund is increased. In fact, I would propose that if funds are not available currently, in this financial year 2008\\2009, we increase it from the current 2.5 per cent to 5 per cent. This is the money that will benefit every corner of this nation. I know many of us would want it to go to 10 per cent, but even if it went up to 5 per cent, I would feel that some justice has been done when we are considering equitable distribution of resources in this country. The Youth Enterprise Development Fund has been considered, and we appreciate that it has increased to 1.5 billion; he has even given Kshs1 million to each constituency. Those are very good indications that the Minister has the heart to make sure that the youth benefit. We have certain problems that must be addressed at the same time. We would like to have documents which give us guidelines as to how this money is going to be disbursed to the youth. That is not in the pipeline at the moment, and we want the Minister to give us the guideline, so that we know how the money will be disbursed to the youth. The other fact to be considered is whether this money is to be channelled through the normal banks in our constituencies. In my constituency, Migori, youth are expected to travel to Kisii. The youth may not be able to travel there because they do not even have funds to go to Equity Bank. Why can that money not be channelled to the common banks, which are available in most areas like the Kenya Commercial Banks (KCB), the Co-operative Bank and so on. That will make this money accessible to the youth, so that they can make use of it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one important factor that has been mentioned by one June 19, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1309 hon. Member is that the interest rate that is charged on this money should be as minimal as possible. I think what the Minister should consider this. If this is a revolving fund, that the money is actually returned to the Ministry for other people to use. I do not think that we should have very high rates, which will discourage the youth from accessing the funds. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, regarding agriculture, we have made very big mistakes in this country. We are now talking about using billions of shillings to import food to Kenya. This is because of poor planning in the past. If that money had been used under the Ministry of Water and Irrigation to promote irrigation, I am sure that areas like Ukambani and the lake region would have given this country the food that we are going to buy from outside. This is an area that the Minister should consider, because when you start importing food from outside, it shows that you are not planning well for the future. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have a problem in my constituency with water. River Migori is a permanent river, but you do not find good drinking water in Migori. Why is that happening? It is because of poor planning. We have constructed some dams through the CDF, but they are not functional at the moment. So, Migori Municipality has a big water problem. That should be addressed by the Minister, so that people who live there, and pay taxes, get benefits from this Government. Let me come to the issue of the sugar factories. We have SONY Sugar Factory. This factory is supposed to benefit the people of that part of Nyanza. I want to say that because of the debts that are being serviced with grants from the Government, it is not very easy for the factory to purchase certain things like tractors, which are required for the development of the sugar-cane industry. There are some parastatals where write-offs of debts have been done. Why can we not request that the debts that are being serviced at SONG Sugar Factory be written off, so that the money is used to buy tractors and other implements? I support."
}