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"id": 193196,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Affey",
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"legal_name": "Mohammed Abdi Affey",
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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to also add my voice to this very important Motion before us. I have extreme reservations about the contents of this Budget. I give the Minister for 1230 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 18, 2008 Finance the benefit of the doubt because in his Speech, he said that the first two months of this year were a trauma for this country. He said that substantial work was slowed down because of the post- election violence that we had in this country. That begs the question, therefore, that we, as leaders, need to be conscious of the fact that every aspect of our lives in this country will contribute to the growth or decline of growth in this country. So, even though politics come to the fore every five years when we have elections in this country, we should be careful in the future not to jeopardise the Kenyan State because of seeking absolute political power. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I listened to the Minister speak about what this years' Budget meant for the people of northern Kenya. First of all, we congratulate the Government for initiating the Ministry of Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands. It is a good starting point, but it is not sufficient. When this was conceived and the Grand Coalition Government came up with this idea, there were celebrations all over the region, that is, the northern Kenya and other arid lands of this Republic. There were celebrations because they thought that, for the first time, there was desire by the Kenyan political leadership to see how the lives of these people could change. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I must confess that what the Minister set aside in his Budget is an anti-climax in the region. The Budget did not reflect the political commitment given to the people during the campaigns of the general election, and after the formation of the Grand Coalition Government. Northern Kenya, and other arid lands, will remain a permanent scar in the conscience of the Kenyan people unless we translate the political statements to reflect reality. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of the Ministry of Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands, which, as Mr. Ethuro has said, does not only cater for North Eastern Province but for all the regions of this country that are arid and semi-arid, the Minister had the audacity to announce Kshs2.4 billion as an allocation to that Ministry. If you look at the needs vis-a-vis the required resources, Kshs2.4 billion can only be considered to be recurrent expenditure. There is not a single capital project the Minister has identified for the semi-arid regions in this country. The reason is because neither the Minister nor the staff of the Ministry of Finance have had an opportunity to visit these parts of the country. Only when you visit the North Eastern Province, when you see the needs of the people, then can you factor them into the Budget. But it looks like this particular budgetary allocation was made in the board rooms of the Treasury, without any attempt to go to the ground to discover what the people in that part of the country require. Therefore, I demand and request the Ministry officials, as they plan, to make the Ministry of Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands relevant to the people of this region. They should re-allocate the Budget. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thought the Minister would go further, because there are no statutes regulating this Ministry. I thought he would go ahead and say that, because of the new found political commitment to help this part of the country, there would really be a particular law defining this Ministry in order to tell us how much we expect every year. If we came up with an arrangement similar to what we have for the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF), a certain percentage of the Consolidated Fund would be going to meet the needs of the people of northern Kenya and other arid lands; perhaps, we would then feel that we are beginning to catch up with the rest of the country. Even though we thank the Government for thinking about this as a first step, it requires an elaborate measure to make sure this Ministry is relevant. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister talked about the issue of roads, a very critical issue. The only tarmac road that we know of in North Eastern Province is a kilometre of tarmac into Garissa District. None of the roads in the whole province of over 1,500 kilometres, from Garissa all the way to Mandera, is tarmacked. We are beginning to appreciate what is going on. But I would like to request the Minister, even as the road works are being done in the province, June 18, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1231 to be careful about the contractors given these assignments. It is not that money is not going to the North Eastern Province. Perhaps, if we visited the Ministry of Finance we would find some figures there. But there is no impact on the ground. We, therefore, need to see how the road network in this part of the country can be upgraded fairly quickly in order to allow our supplies and animals to move very quickly to come to this part of Kenya. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the decentralization of the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) is important. We have, on many occasions, asked the Government to decentralize this particular service. The KMC is located in Athi River. Camels, goats and sheep get to the KMC after travelling 1,500 kilometres. By the time these animals reach the KMC, they will have lost several killogrammes. Therefore, they fetch lower than they would have if the KMC was established in Wajir District, for instance. I want to suggest that a plant be established in Habaswein District, because it, apparently, can service the entire province. If we establish a meat processing plant in Habaswein District, it will be able to assist the people of North Eastern Province. The idea is to improve the livelihood of our people, reduce the level of poverty and increase the amount of money people have got in their pockets. The Minister said that this year's Budget is meant to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor; it is to reduce inequality in the country. There is no way we can reduce inequality when all the service industries are in and around Nairobi. So, we would like to request the Minister to provide funds to decentralize the KMC. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Ministry of Water and Irrigation is a very critical Ministry for us, outside that of the Ministry of Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands. The North Eastern Province is not entirely dry. We have substantial amounts of underground water. If there are enough resources provided to this Ministry, perhaps, we could do more irrigation in our area and get more people to do farming that can be combined with the pastoral lifestyle that we have. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of the constitutional review process, perhaps the Minister has a way of funding this process. Everybody in this country is looking forward to the constitutional review. I did not hear a single word of reference by the Minister for Finance to this very critical process, because this is what we require. The Minister talked about the post-election violence. A lot of people in this country believe that if a proper review of the Constitution is done, and the resources in this country, both political and economic, are diversified - that can only come through the constitutional guarantees and the review that we wanted to undertake - we can achieve the stability and peace that we desire in this country. I want the Minister to take this matter very seriously, in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs, and bring a Bill fairly quickly to Parliament, so that we can have a new constitutional dispensation in this country. Finally, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, unity of the coalition Government is critical for this Budget to succeed. If the coalition partners begin to quarrel about petty politics, I have a feeling that we might not be able to see the desired results that this Budget intends to give us. Therefore, I would like to appeal to Parliament and the leaders of this country to reconcile our people, so that this country can be peaceful and remain an example to the rest of the world, as it has always been. I beg to support."
}