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{
    "id": 196014,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/196014/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 67,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mwatela",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Education",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 103,
        "legal_name": "Andrew Calist Mwatela",
        "slug": "andrew-mwatela"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. This subject is actually long overdue. I would like to thank hon. Ethuro for bringing this matter to the Floor of the House. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I come from a border district. When it comes to securing identity cards, border districts have specific difficulties. For example, a person who was born in my district and shifted to Nairobi to attend school will encounter a lot of problems when he attains the age of 18 years. He will not be able to get that document here in Nairobi. He will be forced to travel back to his rural home to get the authority of his assistant chief and chief, who probably might not know him. I think we need to streamline the issuance of identification cards in our country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the idea of combining the documents is attractive in many ways because it will also cut down on costs. It will also help us to keep records that are easily accessible. These records would help us to track down criminals. I would suggest that we should start with registration of births. When one attains the age of 18 years and needs an identity card, or a voter's card, there has to be a correlation between the records of the birth certificate and that of the identity card and the voter's card. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this documentation would also help the taxman to keep accurate records of people who have attained adulthood, who are employed and are ready to pay taxes. It will also be helpful to our health department, because the same documents would be used in our hospitals to track down what is happening in our health sector. When the Ministry makes arrangements for this process to start, they should take into account the issue which has been alluded to by hon. Mungatana; that is the question of procurement of goods and services. Very many times, we have very good ideas but when it comes to procurement, because people want to \"eat\" through procurement, we end up getting shoddy business being done. So, we would like the Minister to be very alert and transparent, when it comes to procurement of goods and services so that we get the best quality and value for money. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in a country like the USA, for the police to track down a speeding driver, they would only need to enter the registration number of the car into their system and they would get the bio-data of the driver, the owner of the vehicle; where the person comes from and where he works. We need to get there. We cannot get there unless we combine our records into one single item. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with that contribution, I would like to support hon. Ethuro's April 23, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 597 Motion."
}