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{
"id": 194546,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/194546/?format=api",
"text_counter": 182,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Githae",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Local Government",
"speaker": {
"id": 159,
"legal_name": "Robinson Njeru Githae",
"slug": "robinson-githae"
},
"content": "were to rise from the dead and came to see the current Nairobi River, they would agree to go back to their graves. It is an eyesore because it is full of filth. It is full of plastic papers and people wash in it during daylight. The sewage is also emitted directly into the river. One of the tasks that the Minister for Environment and Mineral Resources has to perform is cleaning Nairobi River. We need to bring Nairobi River back to its glory. This is the river that Nairobians depended on for drinking water, but now you cannot use its waters for anything. I said that this is one of the most important Ministries because we also need to do one or two things about our wastage of rain water. We are claiming that there is drought and that there is no water, but whenever it rains all the rain water goes down to the Indian Ocean. We harvest very little water. This is in all buildings, including our Parliament Buildings. They do not collect any water. I think we should start doing that. In this era, every building, whether it is in Nairobi City or wherever, should have an underground water tank. Such buildings must, first of all, conserve the water which is harvested from the gutters and roofs before being allowed to use the piped national water. I think we need to do this. We need to buy tanks for our schools and other learning institutions so that they can harvest water from the rain. At the moment, the rain water just goes down the Indian Ocean. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have also been doing my calculations. There are NGOs which were saying that it will cost Kshs440 billion to maintain the current \"large Government\". Having done my calculations with regard to the amount which we are being requested to approve and the one that is being reduced, I have come to a figure of about Kshs200 million. That is the additional amount we are being asked to approve. I do not know where these civil society groups and NGOs got a figure of Kshs440 billion. If my mathematics is correct, it is about Kshs200 million. So, we must appeal to NGOs and civil society groups not to incite Kenyans against the Government, Parliament or the Cabinet. Really, the additional amount is only about Kshs200 million and yet the figure they were giving us is Kshs440 billion. So, I think it is important that we appeal to NGOs and civil societies to be telling Kenyans the truth. I am also happy to see that the President, in his wisdom, created a new Ministry called the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation. I think after the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources, this is the second most important Ministry. This is because it deals with preventive medicine. I am always sad when I read in the newspapers that the biggest killer disease in Kenya is not even HIV/AIDS. It is not even traffic accidents or murder cases. In fact, it is malaria. The sad thing about it is that malaria is preventable. If it were possible for everybody to use a mosquito net, we would reduce malaria infections by more than 90 per cent and the large amount of money that the Ministry uses in treating malaria would find better use. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am glad that we now have the new Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation which will deal more with preventive medicine than curative. We know that curing a disease is an expensive affair. If we can prevent medical problems, things would really work for us. I am saying this because there are so many diseases which have no cure. May 13, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 987 For example, there is no cure for HIV/AIDS as much as I see people preaching in the media that they can cure people of the disease. There are many church ministers who say that they can cure HIV/AIDS. We know that there is no cure for that disease, but we can prevent it. I am glad that the Ministry will be given sufficient money to come up with HIV/AIDS preventive programmes. We must tell our youth not to be like a saying associated with Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) which says: \"Easy to access\". We must tell our youth not to be \"easy access\". Again, KCB says that they are everywhere, but we must tell our youth not to go the way of KCB of \"easy access\". They must, if possible, avoid premarital sex. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am also glad to note that the Ministry in charge of national disasters has been given sufficient money. With regard to the issue of IDPs, we must encourage them to go back to their farms. There is no alternative. There is no other way because the repercussions of not resettling these people cannot even be mentioned. This is one country where people have the right to live, farm and work anywhere. That is what makes Kenya a sovereign Republic. Therefore, we should not have artificial boundaries. I am saddened to see that not much money has been given to the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) and yet we have been saying that there are a lot of the so-called historical injustices when it comes to constituency boundaries. At the moment, the registered voters in some constituencies are three or four times more than those of other constituencies. We must come up with a policy where the principle of one man, one vote has equal weight. These are some of the historical injustices which I think nobody has mentioned so far. I would have liked the ECK to be given more money so that they now work on reforming our constituency boundaries. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, how can we have a constituency with over 200,000 registered voters and another one with 10,000 registered voters, and both of them sending the same number of representatives to the National Assembly? Surely, can we have a more historical injustice than this one? We need to start working on this anomaly. Maybe, this will sort out some of the problems we have been having. Let constituencies have equal numbers of persons. One of the things that makes the United States of America (USA) work is their policies. In the USA, every congressional district has the same number of inhabitants. That is what makes their systems work so perfectly. After every census, if your congressional district loses some inhabitants to another area, that area is rewarded with more congressional districts. We must come to that level. Another thing is on the provincial boundaries. I see that not much money has been given to the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK). We must also review our provincial boundaries. These were done by the colonial Government. They have no basis. Some of them are ridiculous. Somebody from the upper most part of the Rift Valley Province has to go all the way to Nakuru to access services at the provincial headquarters. Even in Eastern Province, somebody from Marsabit has to travel all the way to Embu to access services at the provincial headquarters. We must come up with more logical provincial boundaries, so that we can bring services nearer to our people. The purpose of Government is to bring services to its people. Unless we tackle some of these issues, we will just keep on sweeping them under the carpet. This will not work in the long run. With those words, I beg to support."
}