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"id": 193185,
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"speaker_name": "Dr. Eseli",
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"speaker": {
"id": 141,
"legal_name": "David Eseli Simiyu",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me a chance to contribute to this debate on the Budget. I would like to commend the Minister for Finance for having worked through a very difficult period, with the downturn in the economy after the post- election violence to actually come up with a Budget that attempts to bring better returns to this country. It is a very daunting task and I commend him and his team for working so diligently. However, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are several things in the Budget that cross my mind and I realize that we have kept on, year after year, presenting what I call \"generic budgets\"! They are \"generic budgets\" in the sense that we do not seem to have a focus as a nation as to where we want to go. When you look at the amounts in the Budget, especially those that are allocated to development, it is very sad because it is such a paltry sum that, actually, development will not come. I do believe, and many people also agree with me, that development is not an accident. Development has to be a concerted effort by us to move in that direction. That concerted effort requires funding. If we do not fund our development initiatives, then we will not be able to get anywhere. Instead, we come up with things that lose us money rather than bring in development. Let us take Kenya Railways, for example, where there is a concessionaire trying to run it. That concessionaire, somehow, along the way, also acquired local investors to join him. It is very interesting that the Minister for Finance suggested that they might be funding some development of the railway in the course of the period. Are they funding that to benefit the concessionaire? That person was supposed to have brought in some money! Instead, right now, Kenya Railways is a laughing stock! In fact, it is actually bringing us to fight with our neighbours like Uganda, because the railway is not functioning and yet, Uganda is landlocked! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the best way forward would have been to throw out that concessionaire and then take up the issue using public funds, just like the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA). We are saying that we are putting some money into the KPA to improve the Port. For who are we improving that Port? That is because along the way, things have been said that we intend to privatise KPA, especially the Port of Mombasa. Are we sinking that money there, which is a public debt, to be paid back to Japan by the public so that they can make the Port better and then privatise it? Are we using the public to improve private enterprises? I think we need to look at these things more carefully. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister also talked about the Rural Electrification Programme. It is every interesting to note that when you drive through this country, especially at night, you will realise that some areas are more electrified than others. That is the inequality of distribution of the Rural Electrification Programme. When you are called to prioritise projects in your constituency, it appears, to me, like every constituency is allocated the same amount of money without looking at the size, population and the amount of electrification that is already on the ground. That way, this Budget actually just entrenches inequality rather than reducing it. If you remember the political upheaval, it was mainly because of the inequality in this country. If we are going to use the Budget to entrench that inequality, I fear that we might not be doing a lot of good. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister for Finance talked about areas of science and technology, innovation for growth and employment. It is saddening that the amount of money allocated to research in this country is a very paltry sum. In that situation, we have left our researchers at the mercy of foreign interests such that whatever they research on is not our agenda. What they research on is the agenda of the people funding that research. This is because we, as a Government, have failed to fund our researchers better. I would give you an example, and I am going to move a Motion on this matter later, if we take research on malaria, we have hyped up the 1222 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 18, 2008 country to believe that mosquito nets are the answer to malaria prevention. Yes, they help, but they are not the only answer. But where are our researchers? They do not have the money to research on better ways and means of controlling this scourge. You find that things like the Genetically Modified Food (GMO) issue that is going on now, our researchers here are funded by foreign interests like \"Monsato\". So, it means that they will research on the agenda of their funders and not the agenda of this country. If I may quote Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru who was one time the Prime Minister of India, he told researchers: \" We are poor that is why we must do research\". We must do research for better innovative ways of pulling our country forward. India succeeded on that premise. What about us? We are not investing in research, instead we are hoping to come up with the generic issues imported from the West. That is what is dragging this country behind. I am very disappointed that a good amount of money was not allocated to research. While I might be disappointed, I am also happy in the sense that on leather industry, at least a mention of Bungoma came up. I felt that, that was pulled directly out of my election manifesto to the people of Kimilili Constituency. I told them that I will develop some leather industry. I think, may be, we were thinking in tandem with the Minister for Finance or may be he plagiarised my manifesto, which is allowed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, it is a very good thing to add Kshs500 million to the Fund, but we need to look at certain basics. How have we empowered the youth to benefit from this Fund? Indeed, the Kshs50,000 which any youth group in the constituency can borrow, when you go down to the ground, these youths have not been empowered to utilise these funds adequately to generate more income. Many of the youth groups have problems of repaying even Kshs50,000. There is an entrepreneurship centre at the Jomo Kenyatta University for Agriculture and Technology. I would have expected the Minister for Finance to fund more entrepreneurship units all over the country to educate our youth on how to utilise these funds for bettering their lot. You can throw money at poverty, but that poverty might not be able to utilise those funds adequately. I fear that, that is what the Minister might have done. I think he might have to correct this so that we have more entrepreneurship units in the country. This is because our education system does not teach our youths to be entrepreneurs. So, we have to teach them out of the normal education system. I expected the Minister for Finance to have put some money in the training of these youths first. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the issue of funding football for our youth was long overdue. This is because, we, Members of Parliament, spend a lot of money trying to encourage sports among the youth. We put in Kshs10,000 here and Kshs50,000 there. So, the Minister for Finance did us a very good turn by allowing us to have Kshs1 million per constituency. But, again, this introduces inequality. If we take a constituency like mine with thousands of youths and you give me Kshs1 million, what I would be able to do for them is not the same that a constituency which has fewer youths will be able to do. Are we still not entrenching inequality? Let us have the Kshs1 million, but let us sit down again and see which constituencies have a larger population of youths and add them a little more money for football so that we introduce equality. This is because many parties campaigned on the platform of equity. Where is equity in the distribution of these devolved funds? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the cost of food is very high. The Minister has tried to put in place mechanisms to reduce that. But, definitely, as the previous speaker said, this might not work because the businessmen will not follow that. But I dare say that the Government is the cause of the high cost of food. It is directly responsible! It is responsible in two ways. When Parliament first convened, I remember standing here when I was making my Maiden Speech and warned that we are going to face food riots unless we do something about the cost of fertiliser. Nothing was done until it was too late. Then, when they tax fuel--- June 18, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1223 With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}