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{
    "id": 208556,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/208556/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 196,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Oniang'o",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 363,
        "legal_name": "Ruth Khasaya Oniang'o",
        "slug": "ruth-oniango"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, seven minutes is plenty. I have just arrived this morning from western Kenya. It is easier now to fly than to go by road. Our roads are impassable. It takes 10 hours instead of five to reach my home in western Kenya. So, flying is cheaper. But since we have four airlines flying to Kisumu - and I would like to be patriotic and use 3200 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 15, 2007 the Kenya Airways, \"the Pride of Africa\", the cost of flying by Kenya Airways to Kisumu has not changed despite them moving from one airline to four. It is only in Kenya where competition does not make any sense to the consumer. With three more airlines, we should be paying Kshs4,000 return ticket. People should find it easier to fly. The ordinary Kenyan who wants to move around and go away from Nairobi and develop their rural areas or see their families, it should be cheaper to fly than to go on a terrible road. So, we have big businessmen in this country who are fleecing the poor. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it takes one hour to fly to Zanzibar, less than one hour to Entebbe and one hour to Dar-es-Salaam. To fly to those countries, it costs around Kshs30,000 due to taxation. But it takes the same one hour to go to Mombasa or Kisumu. It does not make sense! What are we saying? We need a free media to expose all these multinationals and big companies who are fleecing Kenyans. Ideally, competition should bring efficiency, fair play and more players to the business world. I have quoted that one. When you look at the Micro-Finance Bill which we passed here, and I do not understand why it is not yet operational, the big banks had moved away from the rural areas. The poor farmers had nowhere to go for banking. We introduced a Micro-Finance Bill, they are now busy going back there. We know how unfriendly the big banks are to the ordinary person who they describe as lacking in social status. We are coming to the end of the Ninth Parliament and Kenyans are very unhappy with us. They have every right to be unhappy with us because the rich are becoming richer, the monopolisers are monopolising a lot more, the companies are engaging in unfriendly and unacceptable practices. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I support this Motion completely and I am glad that Mr. Sungu has brought this and I hope that he will see Parliament in 2008, incase we do not bring the Bill this year. We also need more responsible governance which really cares for the majority of Kenyans who still live below the poverty line. I do not believe in the so-called economic growth. I go to western Kenya in the rural areas almost two weeks and I know that life has not changed for most people. This is because we have allowed those who have looted this country, those who have been corrupt, those who hold the banks and those who hold the monies to continue to do so and call the shots. I just want to support this Motion and hope that it comes sooner rather than later. With those few remarks, I wish to support."
}