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"id": 195508,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Muriuki",
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"legal_name": "Silas Muriuki Ruteere",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I wish to support the Motion on Supplementary Estimates. I also join others in thanking the Minister for Finance for the 816 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 30, 2008 way he has been running the Ministry. However, I have a few remarks to make. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to echo what has been said on security. As I stand here, this week I have had three serious incidents of insecurity in my constituency. One of our watchmen was murdered on Sunday night. His body was dumped on the road. To date, the murderers have not been found. The police were called and it took them time to come and collect the body. Everybody saw the body on the road as they went to church. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on Monday, as I was travelling to Nairobi, I was called and told that some thugs had ambushed a lorry coming from Nyambene and taken away the Canter with its owners. Later I learnt that they had taken away Kshs600,000 and the lorry went towards Isiolo. It is me, who was travelling to Nairobi, who informed the police and the District Commissioner (DC) about the incident. The other people who called them could not get them. When I called the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) they told me that they were being called every where, yet they had one vehicle. The police station told me that they had one vehicle, and that it was impossible for them to patrol the whole constituency, which has several police posts and stations. There is only one vehicle serving the whole constituency. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it sounds nice for us to talk of Supplementary Estimates being given to Ministries to create offices, and to give services to the people when people are being killed and their property destroyed! We are not giving them enough, so that their security is maintained and assured. I would appeal to the Minister, in the forthcoming Budget, to look at the needs of police stations and the Administration Police (AP) posts. In North Imenti all police officers were taken away from the AP posts and they were closed. Thugs have a field day. They harass people at night whenever they want. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have poverty in a big way. We talk of the Mungiki . I am sure this group came about as a result of extreme poverty. Where there is hopelessness, anything can happen. If we let more young people have a degree of hopelessness, because they cannot access the job market--- They have the paper qualifications, but there is no fairness in job distribution; they turn themselves into militias. Militias can also overrun the country. We saw them overrun Nairobi. If we let them increase to a bigger number, we should expect worse things to happen. Therefore, we should address the issue of employment for the young people and poverty as a national agenda. It should not be talked about in passing. It should be addressed seriously; we should not talk of \"poverty eradication\" as if it is a slogan used in a political rally. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, today the constituencies have not had their Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) money released. This is because there is bureaucracy that is denying people services and has taken away the little that students and those who want money for school fees expected; the whole of first term is gone; the end of second term is almost here and they are not sure of what is going to happen. How do we expect the constituents to react when we are giving money today through Supplementary Estimates, yet they have not got what was supposed to be given to them? We should move in line with the demands of the people. Let us know when these funds can be released and let them be released quickly. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when we go to lack of patrol cars for security purposes, we have patrol cars for traffic offences. This is because when traffic police do patrols, they get money. However, when they patrol to ensure security, they get no money. So, we encourage corruption. I would rather we take all the cars used for traffic patrols to be used for security patrol, so that security is maintained. There is a very acute shortage of teachers in our primary schools. In my constituency alone, there is a shortage of 128 teachers. If this is divided by eight you can see how many classrooms, schools or streams are without teachers. This happens yet we are saying we have free primary April 30, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 817 education. Who is giving free primary education to those pupils without teachers? Nobody! The pupils are only going to school to pass time. They could as well have passed time at their homes. Parents cannot employ teachers, because of the cost of living. The cost of living has gone up so high that they cannot get money. Weather conditions are also not favourable, and so farmers are in a very poor state of affairs. When we go to issues of infrastructure, in my constituency roads become completely impassable when it rains. Bridges are not there. The few that have been constructed through the CDF cannot connect the entire constituency. I hope that we shall get more funding for the roads sector, because it needs a lot of money. There will be improvement in marketing of produce with good roads in place. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support the Motion, but let us look into those issues."
}