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"id": 194002,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Medical Services",
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"id": 185,
"legal_name": "Danson Buya Mungatana",
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"content": " Yes, a lean and clean Government, but let me start from the lean Government. A lean Government is not something that should be seen in isolation. In the whole world right now, there is the concept of leanness in productivity. This applies not only to industries and corporate organizations, but even to the Government. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is one economist by the name John Miller who spent 12 years in Singapore. In his interaction with the government, he came up with the concept of a lean government, which he defined from his own experience in the industry. A lean government will be defined as one that will solve the people's problems based on the facts. It is the one that will provide the highest quality of life to as many people as possible. It will be one that will deliver services to the people at the lowest cost possible. It will be one that will be doing this as quickly as possible. It will be one that will be doing this in a sustainable manner beyond its own tenure. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if we are talking about leanness, we are talking about efficiency 1008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 14, 2008 and productivity. When we are talking about productivity, even in the corporate world, there is the Parieto Principle, which goes that: If you are able to concentrate all your efforts, resources and power to produce in the 20 per cent of your production capacity, then you should be able to achieve maximum results. What am I saying? I am saying that it is possible to reduce the size of the Government and to reduce the waste in the Government. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, when we are talking about leanness, even when you go to a shop or a restaurant and you are ordering lean meat, what you are saying is that you want to get rid of all the fat. You want to eat the lean or \"real\" meat. When we are talking about a lean Government or Cabinet, we are talking about a Cabinet that is going to give people the service it requires. Even the people who have defined leanness-- We are not talking about something that is sustainable just for now, but it will be sustainable even beyond the current Government. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, when we are supporting this Motion, as far as I am concerned, we should support it also with the circumstances that we are in, being informed of them. Because when we are legislating, we just do not legislate for ourselves, but for the people of Kenya as well. When we support and pass this Motion, it is my prayer that it will apply even in the next Government and not necessarily this one because we are in special circumstances. I would like to urge the House to understand it in that sense because we need a movement that I see in this House. Many of us who believe that we should never have waste in the Government are seated in this Parliament. We need to legislate so that, in future, our Parliament and Government are going to be effective. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to give an example. If you sit in most Government departments nowadays; the Government is structured along departments, you will find separate departments. Now, there is a mwananchi here who wants a Government permit, may be, to perform certain duties for his sustenance. He will go from this department to the other department and to the other department. In the sense of a lean Government, we feel that, that law we are coming up with should have a creation of work cells. In this country, we can group Ministries that are relevant to each other to be in one place so that if you are applying for, say, a permit you do not have to go round and round in Nairobi. Ministries which are related can be merged so that a citizen who is looking for a permit to perform certain things or approval from the Government can get service from one building. He does not have to move from one department to another. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I argue that this is a Government that is serving customers. It is like a business that is serving customers. Our customers are the citizens of this Republic of Kenya. They are the ones who sent us to this Parliament. When these customers come to us, they need to be served efficiently. There is no use of having so many departments scattered all over. We should mix these people. We should mix these departments and reduce the number of our Ministries. I agree entirely with Mr. Ethuro that there are some Ministries that can be easily grouped together for efficient delivery of service to our customer who is the citizen of this Republic. If you go to the street today, you will realise that the people who do business in the streets cut down on their costs. They do everything possible to cut down their costs in order to serve the ordinary customers well. If you go to the corporate world, they also cut down on their costs in every thing possible so that they can serve their customers. In Government, time has come for us to legislate a law that will cut down the cost of serving our customers who are the citizens of the Republic of Kenya. One of the things that needs to be done is to set standards. One of those standards is setting the number of Ministries. I entirely agree with this Motion that we need to limit the number of Ministries. The Seconder of the Motion, Mr. Aluoch Olago, whom I have great respect for, has given his own proposition. It is good for this country that we debate all manner of ideas in this Chamber. This is the height of ideas. However, we need to think a little more about how we should constitute May 14, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1009 that Cabinet, what maximum number of Ministries should be there and so on. This should not be our own wisdom as Members of Parliament. Remember we are serving the customers who are outside there in the countryside. They are the ones who sent us here. My own thinking is that, yes, we should agree with the concept. However, with regard to the details, let us pass this Motion. Let us bring the law. When the law is here, we will have enough chance to consult our constituents and be able to propose something that is customer- or citizen-friendly. I will not go as far as saying that we should have a certain number of Ministries. That is not the way to go. We should be edging towards satisfying the customers who are our citizens. With those remarks and the limited time that we have here to debate this Motion, I beg to support. We should be legislating for the future and the good of this country."
}