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"id": 193410,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/193410/?format=api",
"text_counter": 209,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Medical Services",
"speaker": {
"id": 185,
"legal_name": "Danson Buya Mungatana",
"slug": "danson-mungatana"
},
"content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the country was totally divided. People were looking at each other in terms of where they came from, which community they come from and it left some of us in total confusion. For those of us like myself, whose parents come from different communities--- You marry from a different community. Your sister is married in the Rift Valley. Your brother is married in Western Province while you are married in Central Province. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, this country needs to be serious and put money where its mouth is! There is absolutely nothing in this Budget that reflects those beautiful words that the Minister spoke. I think it is a terribly great omission and it needs to be looked at afresh! Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I would also like to look at the question of food prices. In Paragraph 57, I support the intention by the Minister to bring down food prices. But we all know the kind of traders that we have been dealing with over the years. If you say that you are going to zero-rate Value Added Tax (VAT) on bread and rice and reduce Import Duty on wheat from 35 per cent to 10 per cent, we all know that on the first day, the traders will tell you: \"We have to clear old stock that is still pending!\" Therefore, there will be no change or reduction of prices at all. I am sure \"as the sun rises\" that, in another one month, even after we pass this Budget, those prices are, in fact, going to increase. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we are the Government and we are elected by the poor people to come and represent them in this august House. We must take bold initiatives! If the intended action is to reduce the price of bread, we can fix that price of bread in this House. Let us be bold! If we want to do it, let us go all the way. Let us say: \"The price of bread is going to be this! The price of wheat is going to be this\". It is the only way that we are going to control those people. What is going to happen is that they will absorb the benefit and they will not pass it on to consumers. So, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I think the Minister should be bold enough to make a clear suggestion that we are controlling the prices of basic commodities and that is it! That is because, anyway, we are responding to what our people are telling us on the ground! Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, some proposed measures were aimed at reducing poverty and promoting equitable regional development. I am looking at Paragraph 55 of the proposals of the Minister. He has talked about doing so much to bridge the gap between regions and equitable development. In the Ninth Parliament, we spoke so much about the need for this Parliament to check the serious effects of disaster and the economic impact on the rural population. What is the use of saying that we are going to control disasters and make the incomes of regions equitable when places which are lower down on the basin in the river delta, for example, Tana Delta where I come from, all the development that we do is ruined when the river starts flooding? A whole population is again reduced to nothing! Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, two months ago in my constituency, we made seeds available to a population of about 15,000 people. But as I speak today, a whole crop of maize is under water. When you look at it, we have passed in this Parliament a policy of disaster management in this country. If you are asked today--- Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the other day, we travelled to North Eastern Province where there was a fire disaster. A whole hospital wing in the Provincial General Hospital was burnt down! There is no effective response mechanism! We have passed the policy here. We need money June 18, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1261 to respond to disasters in this country! When we had collapsed buildings here in Nairobi, sniffer dogs had to come all the way from Israel to help us! When a building collapsed just here in Mombasa, people had to be brought in from far away, just to help mitigate the effects of disaster! We cannot talk of equitable development in this country, if we are not going to adequately sort out the question of disasters! Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, even when we had the problems in January - the unfortunate events - what was the disaster responsive capacity in this country? Where was it? Who knew when he was being attacked? In fact, even hon. Ethuro has raised that issue here many times before. If somebody is being attacked or a fire is burning in Turkana, who is he supposed to call? What is supposed to happen? There is no money that is being set aside for effective response in case of a disaster. If something is not done about that, it will wipe out all our good intentions! Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I also want to mention something that the Minister spoke about. I congratulate all the efforts the Minister has made in terms of improving the regulatory framework for doing business in Kenya. If you look at his comments in Paragraph 40 of the Budget Speech, extremely good measures have been proposed. Nowadays in Kenya, we have reduced the requirement of licensing. We have simplified so many licenses! Kenya was ranked 8th among the top ten reformers in the world by the World Bank itself! Then, in Africa, it was ranked second. I think that is a good thing. But, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, all those industries do not come to Garsen. They do not go to Mavoko or to Turkana! All those industries are only meant for town communities! This country has 210 constituencies. If we are not going to makes sure that businesses located in rural areas get direct benefits, businesses and industries are not going to come there! I see Paragraph 47 where the Minister has said that he is going to put Kshs300 million for innovation. He divided it into certain sectors. There is a way you can praise it. But if it is just innovating to produce mangoes, what new thing are you doing? What that Kshs300 million should have done is to dwell on practical things. We are putting up a mango and two sugar factories in my constituency. Those are the first factories to come up in my constituency. Why can the Government not say: \"Because you are putting up a factory in a rural constituency, you are going to get a tax rebate of Kshs50 million! Because you are going to Turkana, you are going to be getting Kshs100 million! Because you are going to put up your factory in Marakwet, you are going to get Kshs50 million!\" That is the way we are going to spread industrialization and, therefore, create employment across the country! It is the way we are going to clear down the inequalities in this country! Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to say here that he has tried. I wish he could more bold and innovative. I wish he could also listen to some of the things we say. With those few remarks, I wish to support the Budget Speech. Thank you."
}