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"id": 197340,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kiilu",
"speaker_title": "The Member for Makueni",
"speaker": {
"id": 45,
"legal_name": "Peter L. N. Kiilu",
"slug": "peter-kiilu"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for noticing me. My names are Mr. Peter Kiilu, the Member of Parliament for Makueni Constituency. Let me start by thanking the people of Makueni for electing me to this House. Secondly, I would like to congratulate hon. Members who are here for being elected to serve in this National Assembly. I also want to congratulate them for uniting yesterday, and, in one spirit, passing two important Bills that will give rise to a new political dispensation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to make a few comments on the Presidential landmark speech during the opening of this House. His Excellency the President touched on water. What is making me happy is that for the first time, a national policy on water harvesting and storage is being talked about. I say so because I come from an arid and semi-Arid area. The ASAL areas are as good as the high potential areas, but their potential has not been exploited, because we have no water to make ourselves felt in the national economy. If water harvesting and storage capacity is put in place, the ASALs can contribute a lot to food security, thus making the pastoral communities in those areas self-sufficient. As we are talking now, those of us from the ASALs live under the mercy of the weather. As talk now, my constituents are asking me how they are going to survive, because the rains are failing. As usual, we are being told that nobody will die, because the Government will give them food. What we want in this country is not to pride ourselves in providing famine relief. We should pride ourselves in empowering communities in the ASALs to produce enough for themselves. I have seen, in my working career, communities fighting and killing each other over that scarce resource called water. It is high time that resources were equitably distributed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I now want to touch on education. I want to support 304 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 19, 2008 and congratulate the Government for putting in place free primary and secondary education. If that facility was not available to those of us who come from Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs), many of our people would not access education. We thank the Government because now, they are able to access education. But as we do so, I am appealing to the Government to also consider extending that facility to cover the pre-primary unit. We are living with many poor people. I believe that pre- primary education is important for setting the base for those who are joining primary education. We also believe that Vision 2030 will be implemented by a well-trained human resource. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the base for training that resource should start from nursery schools. That is why I am asking this House to support, my view, that teachers in pre-primary schools should be paid by the Government and that, education at that level should be made compulsory and free. That way, as many children as possible will access that education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the resettlement of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)--- Yesterday, we passed two landmark Bills. Those Bills will enable this House to create a conducive environment to enable those people who are displaced to move back to their areas. That is because due to what happened, many of them will not move back to where they were, unless they are assured that the environment is conducive for them to move back. That calls for increased security surveillance and assurances by this House and the Government that the environment is good for them to move back. I want to touch on infrastructure. We want to commend the Government for what it is doing to rehabilitate roads in this country, particularly, the highways. But as we do so, let us look at the standards, so that roads are not done and before the contract is even completed, they start peeling off. The road between Machakos, passing through Wote to Makindu, which is about to be completed in a few months, is already peeling off. Potholes are already appearing on the road. Could something be done about it?"
}