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"id": 195521,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/195521/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Kimunya",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Finance",
"speaker": {
"id": 174,
"legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
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"content": " Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. Let me take this opportunity to thank hon. Members for their support and encouragement, not just to the Ministry of Finance, but also to the Government in terms of what we were doing and what we are intending to do. I have picked up couple of things, which require some clarifications. But by and large, I believe that there was overwhelming support for the Motion. In terms of the IDPs, we agree that there is need for their resettlement. This matter must actually be speeded up. I have confirmation from the Minister of State for Special Programmes, and she actually confirmed to the House, that this activity has to be done at the earliest opportunity to make sure that people get back to their productive activities. We should avoid situations where a country that has been the beacon of hope and peace in the region is seen quarrelling with itself. We should make sure that we do not have a single tent for the IDPs, preferably within the next couple of months. That way, people will look at Kenya for what really it is. I also agree on the need to have enhanced security. This is not just for people within the camps or the areas that had flare-ups, but also across the entire country. That way, Kenyans can go to sleep knowing that they will wake up in the same condition or even better. Nobody should actually panic about what is happening to his child or house now that he is not there. I believe that is what we are aiming for. Part of these resources that we are asking for is to ensure that is actually done. This will enable us to recruit more police officers and also ensure that they have vehicles and resources. In terms of the wider issues of opening up the economy, as people get more money and move away from poverty to prosperity, they will have more resources. Rich people do not steal from one another. At least, we can contain criminals wanting to do fraud. But in terms of people stealing because of poverty, that is something we should all work towards eliminating within the wider framework of ensuring prosperity for all Kenyans. I know that a couple of hon. Members raised the issue of ensuring that the money we are spending should translate into services being felt at the grassroots. I think that is what we have been working on. That is the brighter side of having many people within our Ministries; with 94 Ministers and Assistant Ministers. I believe the Government can never say: \"We did not have somebody to go and see what was happening in Kapenguria or Kajiado\". This is because now, there are enough people to move around to make sure that services are delivered. I think that is the brighter side of having many people in Government. Accountability in this House should not just be on written reports, but also in terms of what people have actually physically seen and witnessed. We can together work on these issues. With the new Membership in this House and the enthusiasm that we have witnessed, I believe that we will provide close follow-up and oversight that is 820 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 30, 2008 required to ensure that services reach the people and there is value for Kenyans. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to assure the House that we are equally concerned in terms of what happened. I can assure this House that, that issue of the assets of Miwani, the land owned by Miwani Sugar Mills - that is basically the precursor to the Miwani 1989 Limited--- We have been following that matter and it has received my close attention because we do not believe anyone had the right to do the things that they did. But the Kenya Sugar Board (KSB) and the Government Investments Department is following that matter. We will apprise the public and this House in due course. Just a bit in terms of touching on the debt, I agree with the sentiments expressed by hon. Members. We may not be able to cry over spilt milk. Debts were incurred in the past and all the money may not have been used for the right purposes. But we have an obligation to pay. We are entering into bilateral discussions with some of the lenders and agreeing on how to reschedule; how do we make it soft and for some of them, how can we convert some of the repayment into development. But in terms of Kenya's rating as a country, the good thing to note is, obviously, if you went agitating for debt write-off, you are basically saying: \"I am bankrupt! I am unable to pay my debts!\" People do not respect you after that. Even investors cannot respect you. So, it is something we will have to work on to improve on our use of the monies in the future and, hopefully, that could reduce the burden. We have also moved towards long-term debts and you will see, even within our borrowing of the Treasury Bills, that we are moving more towards the long-term rather than short-term to ensure that we can also bring down the overall costs and have some predictability in terms of what we do. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I mentioned last year, and we will continue, we are also working on ensuring that we do not borrow for our Recurrent Expenditure. We borrow for Development Expenditure so that, in future, we can tell our children: \"This is the money we borrowed. This is what we did!\" Rather than saying we borrowed and it was all consumed on consultancies and technical assistance that nobody can put a finger on and say what the money was used for. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to also clarify something that came up in the course of the discussions about the CDF allocations. It is true that the CDF money is allocated based on population and the poverty indices. So, it takes into account some affirmative action. Again, it is something that we will continue with. I am very happy that, because of the targeted interventions we made over the last five years, poverty was reduced in terms of the number of people living under absolute poverty. We managed to reduce it from 56 per cent to 46 per cent which, to us, is a major improvement. If you see the pattern of that, again the poverty was reduced in some parts of Western and Nyanza provinces. I believe, in the Rift Valley, the incidence of poverty was reduced to far much more than in Central Province and Nairobi. In the Coast and the North Eastern provinces, we still have challenges and I believe that we will be moving in that direction. The creation of the Ministry of Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands is part of that realisation; that we need some targeted investments in that region. So, we are all moving together to ensure that it happens. On the issue of security, I cannot re-emphasise. We need to ensure that, that happens and we all work together on that. There seemed to be some confusion on the role of the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) and I thought I may want to highlight this. They are actually not sleeping on the job. Our NSIS is one of the best, not just within Africa, but on a global scale. It is highly technical and I believe that they are doing their job. What we now need is the other complementary services in terms of what we do with that intelligence once it has been gathered. We must give them credit for already having sustained peace and security in this country to date. The skirmishes we had were of our own making, as Kenyans. We stopped them when we started behaving. The signing of the National Accord seems to have brought down the tensions. We have April 30, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 821 not witnessed the kinds of things we were doing. So, it is something we could do, as Kenyans, to ensure that we have peace and tranquillity within our borders as we let our intelligence services take care of the other threats coming from external sources. They have been doing a very good job on that. I just wanted to clarify this so that we do not think that we are giving them more money when they are not doing enough. They are actually doing quite a bit. Another issue that I wanted to clarify came from Maj-Gen. Nkaisserry. I would have liked him to be here to hear this, because it is a pet subject of his. He keeps telling me that livestock to the Maasai people is not just livestock; it is like pets. It is something that he is very passionate about. Part of the money that we are seeking in these Supplementary Estimates for the Ministry of Livestock Development is for creating a revolving fund for re-stocking of livestock that gets lost due to droughts. I am sure that the fund will benefit Kajiado District and other places. It is something that we have to continue doing. It is not just re-stocking that we will do, but also branding of livestock, so that we curb some of the cattle rustling, and be able to trace animals when they are stolen from another area. We also want to be able to assign value to beef, depending on whether it is from Kajiado or northern Kenya. Basically, I believe that there are so many issues; I am happy that hon. Members have picked on that, and we will be addressing them when we come to the main Budget. All that I would like to state, at this point, as I said earlier, is that the demands on us needed upwards of Kshs62 billion. It could even have been more. We only have limited resources and limited time within which to absorb those resources. I believe that if we work together as Parliament or Government, and with the support the people of Kenya through paying their taxes and the international community--- I do hope that they will be able to transform their pledges to actual tangible cheques that will come in. If we work together, we will inspire this nation as far as the rate of growth is concerned. We will increase the revenues that we need to meet all our demands, create more employment and make sure that the youth are employed and productively engaged in the growth of this nation. I believe that we can eradicate poverty and move this nation to what it should be. I give thanks to hon. Members for their support and encouragement. I assure them that we will continue to be prudent and to oversee the economy in the best interests of this country. With those few remarks, I beg to move."
}