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"speaker_name": "Mr. Munya",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Office of the President",
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"legal_name": "Joseph Konzolo Munyao",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I would like to take this opportunity to second this Vote of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is a very key Ministry because it is the one that provides the link between our country and the other nations of the world. In the modern world, countries are all interlinked. Barriers are being broken everyday and we acknowledge the coming of what has been called a \"global village\". August 28, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3483 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, therefore, becomes very critical in assisting a country to occupy its space in that global village. That is why this Ministry is very important. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are also living in a changing world. We used to live in a world where we had two blocs. This was during the Cold War. Those barriers have now been completely broken down. During those years, most Ministries of Foreign Affairs, in the world, used to focus on the relations between those two blocs. You were either aligned or non-aligned to one of the blocs. Without those blocs, most countries are now focusing on economic diplomacy instead of political diplomacy that was based on the way the world was divided. I would like to laud our Ministry for shifting its focus from diplomacy of politics to diplomacy of development. We are continuing to reap the benefits of that shift. If you look at what the Ministry has been doing, especially at the regional level, you will see that it has been making sure that there is peace around our country. It has also been taking part in ensuring that our neighbours like the Sudan, Somalia, and Uganda are peaceful. This has not happened just because we are interested in peace for the sake of it. It is because we know that once our neighbours are peaceful, our country will be stable. We will also reap benefits through trade links with those countries by exporting our products to those countries. We always focus on our key interest as a nation. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, diplomacy is about a country assessing its own interests and pushing for them. Of course, when you are pushing for your interests you have to make sure that the interests of your friends and neighbours are also taken care of so that there is no conflict between your interests and those of your neighbours. We have been focusing on those key interests of our country. The most important interest is expanding our trade ties and being able to sell our goods everywhere. Our business people should be able to travel to other countries and carry out commerce. This also makes our economy grow. We can argue that the 6.1 per cent economic growth was also largely contributed by the work that this key Ministry has been doing. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, If you look at Southern Sudan, for instance, I am told that we have more than 35,000 Kenyans living and working there. They are doing business there. That is because of the work that this Ministry has been doing; to bring peace there. Infrastructure is being put in place. For example, construction of roads is going on so that we can connect ourselves with this country. This will enable us to expand and make Kenya the regional power. We should continue to make Kenya the economic power in this region. This cannot happen without our contribution to regional peace. In fact, we have been invited to Uganda, to go and participate as observers. The people involved in the Ugandan conflict recognise that without Kenya not much would be achieved. I am happy that our Minister has accepted to sent our team to participate. Uganda being our key and foremost trading partner, it would be in order for us to be involved in bringing that conflict in Uganda to an end. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to laud the Ministry for the role that it has been playing in strengthening our links with the East Asian countries that have been doing very well. They include the newly industrialised countries that we can learn from. Some of those countries were at the same level in economic development with Kenya when Kenya was doing extremely well in the 1970s. Not only are we going to do a lot of trade, which is already thriving in this country, but we are also going to learn what they did to transform their countries. That is why we have our missions in Bangkok, Japan, Malaysia and even in countries where we may not open our missions, the Ministry continues to open consulates there to make sure that our commercial interests are taken care of. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to laud our Ministry, especially our contribution in strengthening the regional economic blocs because regional integration is the in-thing today. There is nowhere in the world where we do not have neighbouring countries coming together to 3484 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 28, 2007 form economic blocs so that we can break down trade barriers that are a hinderance to trade. That is why Kenya is a key member in the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) and we continue to commit ourselves to COMESA and make it a success. If you look at our share in terms of trade, we control 43 per cent of all the trade that is done within the COMESA bloc. If you control 43 per cent of trade in one bloc, you can see how successful Kenya has become in terms of trade in the region. That is why our commitment to this regional blocs continues to be very important to us and to our economy. There is the East African bloc which is already growing faster than COMESA in terms of economic integration and even in terms of political integration because the vision is slowly coming up with an East African federation. If you look at the communities in East Africa, the people share one language and one culture. Many years ago, the Mzungu came and created nations. But before he came, long distance trade was thriving in the East African region from the Eastern Coast all the way to Congo, it is a natural region not just for economic integration but also for political federation. That is why our Government has been committed to making this political integration a success. I can remember that our own Attorney-General was involved in drafting the documents that were intended to fast-track the integration. The citizens have also been involved in giving ideas on how that can be done so that it does not flop like the previous initiative. With those few remarks, I beg to second."
}