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"speaker_name": "Mr. J.K. Koech",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for East African Community",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I would like to commend the Minister for Finance for coming up with a very good Budget. It is important for all of us to appreciate what the Government is doing in preparing such a very good Budget and also in the way it is generating revenue for this nation. Currently, we are depending almost wholly on our own resources to finance the Budget. About 96 per cent of our national revenue is generated from within. This is quite commendable. If we are going to depend on our own sources of revenue, we will, indeed, become independent and we will not bow to the wishes of donors and their conditionalities. This is a very big milestone in our development based on our local sources of revenue. I would like to commend the Minister for Finance and the Kenya Revenue Authority for effectively collecting funds. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have talked so much about corruption. I believe that corruption has come down even in terms of the amount of revenue we are collecting. Where was the Government revenue going to before? Why was the collection of revenue not to the extent it is being done today? This is one way of showing that the Government has tightened all the corruption loopholes in the collection of revenue. That is why we are collecting enough money to be used within the country. So much has been said about the economic growth on the negative side. The fact that there has been a big growth rate in the economy of our country, should be commended by all the hon. Members. The current 6.1 per cent economic growth rate has really stimulated the growth of this country. Yesterday, an hon. Member said that there has not been a trickle-down effect of the growth of the economy. We should be appreciative of what is going on. The growth in the agricultural and the construction sectors has made it possible for quite a number of people to get employment. The fact that people have got jobs, shows that there has been a trickle-down effect of the economic growth. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, previously, people could not even get casual employment, but the fact that the construction sector is doing well, means that they are now getting some form of subsistence. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is very clear that the poverty index has gone down by more than 10 per cent which means that quite a good number of Kenyans enjoy better living standards than before. I think we should not downplay this and say \"Why do we talk about a growth in the economy and there is no trickle down effect?\" Quite a good number of farmers who 2056 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 27, 2007 had not been paid for their sugar are now being paid. That must be having an impact on their livelihood. Hon. Bett has talked about the environment. It is true that the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources should be given more money. Global warming is not being caused by Kenyans. It is being caused by people from the Western countries who have got huge industries and they are spoiling the atmosphere. We would like to request those countries to pay for the damages. They should pay damages to a country like Kenya so that we can do re-afforestation because they have failed to control environmental degradation in their own countries. The Ozone Layer is not being destroyed by Kenyans. It is being destroyed by the Western industrial states. They should compensate us by giving us more money so that we can plant trees in order to reduce the damage they are causing to the world. So, we should not talk here as if it is Kenyans who are causing global warming. The amount of carbon dioxide we are emitting into the atmosphere is a very small fraction of the amount of gas being emitted by the industrial countries into the atmosphere. That is why we have got climate change and floods. That is why the weather has changed. We have been having rains from October until this time. This time should be a dry period. Some of us have not been able to plant crops because of too much rain. We come from water-logged areas where you cannot plant crops because you cannot go to the farm. This has been caused by global warming which has been generated by emission of gas into the atmosphere by industrial countries. That does not mean that we should not protect our environment. We should protect our environment, but we are not the cause of this global warming. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to say a bit about the East African Community. I would like to request hon. Members to support us in passing out more information about the East African Community especially on the fast-tracking of a political federation. The establishment of the Customs Union, especially at this time when we are negotiating the protocol on the common market, will have a big impact on the economy of Kenya because we sell quite a good number of our products to Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. This means that the East African Community is doing quite a lot for this nation. The improvement of revenue collection which we have witnessed is as a result of the economic integration in the region. I want to request my colleagues that even when they go campaigning for elections, they should also talk about the fast-tracking of the political federation. This will assist us and strengthen the economy of this country if we move on that particular aspect. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to commend the Government on the Rural Electrification Programme. When you travel throughout the country, you will see a lot of electric poles everywhere. Most of the centres in this country will now have electricity. I find a lot of poles being imported from Tanzania. So, every time I go to Arusha, I know that the poles from there are benefiting the people of this country. Rural electrification has become extremely successful. Some people are complaining that roads are not being constructed. I am happy that when I go from here to my constituency, I have noted that there is heavy construction of roads from Maai Mahiu to Narok. There is another road which has been completed from Narok to Sotik. This road will enhance development in South Rift. I would like this House to appreciate that it will be extremely important. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is talk that the general elections will be held next year. I think we should be ready for elections in December. I think hon. Members of Parliament are tired. You can see that there are very few hon. Members in the House because they want to go for elections. So, if we talk about elections in February, there will be no quorum in this House. I think we should go for elections as scheduled in December. We should not employ some funny tactics. Perhaps, some people are not prepared. I do not June 27, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2057 think that the election date has been changed and it should not be changed. We are fully prepared to meet the challenges in elections. We should all go for elections come December. We should not be talking about having elections in February or extending the life of this Parliament. This is a cry from some people who are not prepared for elections. Most of the time, there are very few hon. Members of Parliament in the House because they are tired. They want to go for elections so that they can renew their energy. Those who will come back to the House want to renew their energies. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we went for a referendum so that we could have a new Constitution. The amendments were not accepted by the people of this country. So, we should leave all these issues of minimum reforms so that when we come next time we can go for a comprehensive overhaul of our Constitution. I think we have done a lot of damage to this nation for coming up with minimum constitutional reforms. If the country is going to be ready for a comprehensive constitutional review, then we should go for that. We should not be talking of minimum reforms and then we do a lot of patching up of our Constitution. We should have comprehensive reforms. This patching up is not doing this country any good. I think we should be talking about comprehensive reforms rather than minimum reforms which will not do anything for this nation. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}