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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me a chance to contribute to this important Vote. Right from the outset, I would like to congratulate the Minister, his Assistant Ministers and his staff for the way they have managed this Ministry. As you may realise, Members of Parliament in various Committees make trips abroad. We have been very well taken care of by our missions abroad. We should thank the Minister and his staff for making sure that we are welcome and well hosted whenever we are abroad. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the current trend is that foreign missions are set up mainly to manage trade relations with those foreign lands. These days, unlike the old days, we do not manage wars or movement of people in slavery but concentrate on trade. Trade is what will make this country develop. I urge the Minister to ensure that the people who are appointed to our missions abroad are people who can promote trade between our country and the country to which they have been credited. Sometime, late last year, we went to Poland and we found out that, that country would like to buy our tea and coffee but we do not have a mission there. The mission which takes care of Poland hardly makes any visit to that country because they have not been given adequate resources to make visits to Poland, Estonia, Thessalonia, Ukraine and so on. Those are countries that would want to buy our tea and coffee. We do have a mission in China but unless we are careful, China can destroy our industries by exporting into this country sub-standard goods at very cheap prices and at un-competitive prices so that our production cannot compete with the imports from China. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to give an example of the textile industry. We want to revive it and take advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) but we cannot do that unless we are capable of stopping cheap imports from China. We cannot take advantage of that agreement and we cannot industrialise unless we are capable of stopping cheap imports, especially from China. Those imports are subsidized by the Chinese Government, such that the prices are low. That is why I am saying that the people we deploy to those missions must be people who have the know-how to determine and find out that actually the goods which are being exported to our country are not sub-standard or have been subsidized and can raise a query. That will assist us develop our own industries. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we do know that the world is now a village, especially in trade. Trade is being organized and managed from Geneva. To negotiate in World Trade Organization (WTO), we need people who are experienced and have knowledge about national trade. It takes time to know, pick and apply. What I have seen in the recent years is that, we post an officer to Geneva and he or she takes two or three years to learn. When they have learnt, we recall them back to Kenya and we post a new officer to go and learn. Due to that, we cannot effectively negotiate for the right of Kenyans. For example, our coffee and tea would have been considered under trips and geographical indicators. But we have not been able to do it because the negotiators that we have sent there do not have the knowledge or the capacity to negotiate. Those who have learnt and have the capacity to negotiate have been recalled. So, I urge the Minister to liaise with his counterpart in the Ministry of Trade and Industry to make sure that the people we sent to the missions such as Brussels and Geneva have the knowledge and capacity to negotiate on our behalf on trade matters. We sent abroad what they call Intelligence and military attaches. I do not understand why we do that. We August 28, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3505 should sent military attaches to Somalia so that they can stop the entry of small arms into Kenya. Why do we have to send a military attache to Russia and the United Kingdom (UK), for example? Our biggest problem is the entry of small arms into this country. So, we should send our military intelligence attachees to those countries that are likely to be used in smuggling small arms into our country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I visited the United States of America (USA). I was surprised and actually shocked to find out that our mission in the USA, in Washington, does not know the number of Kenyans who are in America. The few that they knew that were there, they did not know what they were doing. As we know, America is trying to repatriate people who have lived in that country for 20 to 30 years. Since we do not have the power to argue with it, our missions should have the names of all Kenyans in America such that if they get into a problem and they have to be repatriated unfairly, the mission can come to their assistance. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you bring a person who has been working in America to a country where there is no work--- The same way we have done with the Mungiki adherents where we have removed them from matatu terminuses and sent them home, then that will be a recipe for chaos. They have begun slaughtering people and the same will happen to such people from America. To bring somebody who has lived and worked in America for 30 years to Kenya where he does not have work, then he will become a butcher and will be butchering people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we should encourage this Ministry to liaise with the Ministry of Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services, so that our children and sportsmen can actually promote the image of this country like the young lady who won a gold for Kenya this afternoon in Japan. That is good image for the country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, there should be a close relationship between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Parliament because we make these trips. We should be ambassadors of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs whenever we go abroad, so that we promote the image of this country. This Ministry should not allow foreign diplomats like the British High Commissioner and American Ambassador to lecture us about our rights and development when our own diplomats cannot lecture them in their own countries. We should have responsible reciprocity people. If our missions are not allowed to lecture Americans about America, no American should lecture us about our country and human rights. What human rights are there in America when people are taken to Iraq to die without question or when people are repatriated without being questioned on how long they have stayed there and whether they have got a home where they can subject them to? That country has no human rights! So, they should not lecture us about human rights. They should not even observe our elections because we do not observe theirs. So, this Ministry should be strong and know that this country is the gateway to the East African countries. It is developing quite fast. Therefore, we should stand on our feet and project our image the way we should. With those few remarks, I would like to support."
}