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"id": 197292,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/197292/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. M. M. Ali",
"speaker_title": "The Member for Moyale",
"speaker": {
"id": 74,
"legal_name": "Ali Mohamud Mohamed",
"slug": "ali-mohamud-mohamed"
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"content": " Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to add my voice to the Presidential Speech. For those who do not know me, my names are Mohamud Mohamed Ali, the Member for Moyale. Whenever I introduce myself as the Member for Moyale, quite a number of people ask: Is it Moyale Central, North or East? For your information, Moyale is one district and one constituency. So, there is no Moyale North or Central. That is just for the record. Mr. Speaker, Sir, allow me from the outset to congratulate you for being elected to the March 19, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 277 honourable position of being the Speaker of this Tenth Parliament. Indeed, it was a very acrimonious exercise but I think, you have displayed the leadership that some of us knew you will display. I wish to congratulate you for that. Coming to the Presidential Address, I want to commend His Excellency the President for giving us a wonderful Speech during the Official Opening of this Parliament. When we were busy campaigning in the field, we looked at each other as people from the other side. We also viewed His Excellency the President as somebody who has taken away our victory. But when he gave us that encouraging speech that evening, I found myself clapping for him the whole night. His Speech was very reconciliatory. It was a Speech from a leader of his stature. I commend him for all the things he touched on. Coming to the particular component of his Speech, he mentioned various Bills which will be tabled before this House. Notably, he mentioned the amendment to the Sugar Act, Coffee Act and Tobacco Act. While those are very important aspects of our economy, I want to bring it your attention that livestock sector, which is the backbone of income for most of the arid and semi-arid areas in this country, has not being given the due attention by the previous regimes and the current one. I wonder why the livestock sector from which we get meat, milk, skin and other products was given such a raw deal. I will in future bring a Motion to this House--- I hope it will get support from across the board. I feel we are being marginalised when such integral part of our economy is not highlighted in the Presidential Address. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I listened very carefully to some of my colleagues from Central Kenya who talked about marginalisation this morning, I was really touched. It is either they are ignorant about marginalisation or they are not aware what the rest of the country is going through. I think for them to understand properly what marginalisation is all about, I urge them to visit northern Kenya. When I say northern Kenya, I mean areas which are arid and semi arid. I particularly want to underline the problems we are going through in Moyale. As we speak today, the people who are talking about marginalisation because of minor issues have tapped water in all their houses. Mr. Speaker, Sir, animals in Moyale Constituency are dying today because of lack of water. Where there is a borehole, it is over-used, because every other location population migrates there. After that is exhausted, they move to another place. Now, the situation is out of control. Where there is water, there is no pasture. These animals have started dying one by one. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is not only lack of water which is killing our animals, or even people. Starvation is the other problem. I noted in the Presidential Address that Kshs1 billion has been set aside for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). That is, indeed, a commendable effort and we urge the authority concerned to distribute that money fairly, so that all Kenyans, regardless of where they come from, benefit. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am wondering why the Government has not been prepared when disasters are always impending. For example, northern Kenya has always been--- When I talk of northern Kenya, I also mean upper Eastern Province, where I come from, including Moyale, Marsabit and Isiolo. This time of the year every year, we go through this severe drought, which takes lives of animals and even human beings. I do not understand why we always respond to emergencies and do not plan ahead. If we planned ahead, we would not be putting people in danger like we are doing now. For example, if the Ministry of Planning and National Development had planned enough, the problem we are talking about, would have been contained. Mr. Speaker, Sir, having said that, when we talk about marginalisation, I want to go back to the colonial times when that area was left alone. The colonial masters did not care what kind of people lived there. This was because they were thinking about their interests. They wanted to concentrate on the highlands because they knew they would have time to think about their 278 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 19, 2008 ranches, children going to school and where they would play golf. They did not care about where the Somalis, Boranas, Gabras, Rendilles and Turkanas lived. They did not care about what would happen to them. For that reason, the roads in northern Kenya were left unattended to. It is a shame that to date, from 1963 when we attained our Independence, these roads are not what can be called roads. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you leave Moyale for Nairobi people in Moyale will tell you, \"when you reach Kenya, say hello to our people who live there\". This is simply because you would take about three days to reach Nairobi, because there are no roads. We see tarmac when we reach Isiolo. I think this should be a thing of the past with the spirit we are seeing and the Grand Coalition in place. I am very optimistic that these roads will be tarmacked and will promote the economy of this country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, some of the Bills that His Excellency the President mentioned have to do with the registration of engineers, architects and quantity surveyors. As I come from that background, I want to highlight a few things since I agree with the President. The laws of this country that govern these bodies are scattered all over. The scales of fees are not clear. As such people will charge according to what the clients are able to offer. This gives an opportunity to some people, who are not registered and are not able to offer quality services. That is why we have many houses which are not properly designed and are, therefore, a risk to this nation, as we have noticed in very many areas. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I urge this House that we pass the necessary Bills. We must revisit the Acts which are already in place, so that people are properly paid when they offer the services that they should offer, and so that there is no short- cut and risk to the nation. You will wonder why whenever contractors raise claims--- I have never seen any claim from contractors which the Government successfully resisted. Every other time, it is the contractors who win. This is simply because people are not properly paid, and they collude with contractors, and, in the process, the Government loses a lot of money. Once the relevant Acts are properly streamlined, we will be able to get value for our money. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to bring to your attention the fact that in the upper Eastern Province region, we have one of the districts---"
}