HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 206808,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/206808/?format=api",
"text_counter": 124,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Muturi",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 215,
"legal_name": "Justin Bedan Njoka Muturi",
"slug": "justin-muturi"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I believe Mr. Wetangula just wants to remind me about those things which we learnt together. I am saying that watching the Minister in that forum and realising that we had never, in this House, discussed or debated what could be a blueprint describing Kenya's foreign policy, which we are now being told has shifted from mere politics to economic interest, I knew that, that analogy would work and apply fairly and squarely to the Minister. Be that as it may, we want to assume that what the Minister calls Kenya's foreign policy are flashes of the imaginations or intentions of the Minister or the various technocrats who work with him or guide him. I want to point out this issue, that when the Minister says that they are going to give greater attention to the Kenyans in the diaspora, I think it is something that we would want to develop into a policy, because maybe some other Minister will come and that will not be his priority. The Government is just waking up to the reality that there are far too many Kenyans out there, the majority of whom the Government was never involved in their going to work outside there. The Government is merely now beginning to realise that there is so much in the form of remittances coming from out there from Kenyans, that it is saying: \"Gosh! Now there is need for us to develop a policy!\" You can see why I was saying that it is as long as the judge's foot. It is whimsical! It is not something for which a policy exists. So, the Minister today will come out and say: \"Yeah, we have noticed that there are Kenyans making remittances\". Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are two very important issues that I want the Ministry to address. One, if, indeed, we are shifting to Kenya's economic interests, I want to agree with Mr. Muite's suggestion, that even the rating of ambassadors be on the basis of their performance on the economic front: How much have they improved Kenya's economic interests between the country of their accreditation and Kenya? That will only happen if at the recruitment 3494 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 28, 2007 level, we just do not pick fellows who have been district, agricultural or co-operative officers and then we post them to some mission and tell them: \"You are now a trade attache\". That is not going to help! We need to actually make it a policy that we advertise those jobs, because if we continue picking traditional civil servants, even when you visit those countries, they hide and do not want to disclose what exactly they do, because they are still steeped in the old Civil Service mentality that there is top secret. They do not know that there is nothing secret any longer; we discuss everything here in the open. I want to see greater involvement of this Ministry, having recruited qualified and appropriate staff in various missions, involved in the negotiations which are taking place in the various Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that this country is entering into with various blocks. We need involvement of this Ministry and this House. We want what comes out of negotiations, where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife are involved--- We want those issues brought here to this House, so that we can debate them. We want to know what it is we expect when we open a mission in Seoul. Until recently, we just had some consular office there. If you visit that city, the Korean there will not even bother with you, or know where you are from, because we did not take it seriously. I want to congratulate the Ministry because they have now seen it fit to have fully-fledged missions in some of those countries. It is important! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, but as my colleagues said earlier on, if, indeed, Kenya wants to reap maximum benefits, what we would call \"peace dividends\", particularly within this region, we need to see proactive development. If you look at the Printed Estimates, for instance, what does this Ministry propose to do in a place like Juba in Southern Sudan? This financial year, they have allocated nothing for construction of buildings. So, we are going to say that we are going to encourage Kenyans to invest there. The kind of Kenyans who will go there will just be groundnut and njugu karanga sellers, because we are not being serious. It is proposed that the year after, there will be some allocation of about Kshs40 million to build a house in Juba. By that time, the more serious countries will have already established themselves. For what will you be building a house? We need to see the Ministry making appropriate provisions now. It is important that we reap the peace dividends because we have suffered as a country. We want to encourage the Ministry because they are doing a good job. But we want them to do better. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of women being employed in international organisations, I want to leave that to the women brigade. It is not my business. They can do what they want. They can apply for those jobs. It is just like what we said the other day. We do not want to give them free seats here. Even out there, they must not assume that anybody is going to give them free jobs. They must compete with young men like hon. Wetangula. They should not hope that, even at the Ministry level, merely because they are women, they should be appointed to positions. I totally oppose that kind of proposition. That, we must just appoint women because we want to be seen as being in the league of nations that are pro-women. We are pro- people and not pro-women. All people must be appointed according to their proven ability. It is not just because they come and say that they are women. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like the Minister to talk about the property in Hague, when he is making his reply. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}