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"id": 216693,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/216693/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Khalwale",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for East African Community",
"speaker": {
"id": 170,
"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I would like to say that I rise to support the Budget Speech because, in my view, it is an improvement on the previous Budget that we had an opportunity to listen to last year. When I did a quick overview of the Budget that was read by the Minister, I realised that, probably, the best time to raise substantive issues would be when we shall be speaking on the various Votes. However, what becomes evident at the very beginning is that, one cannot use the system that we use in making the Budget in this country, and be able to achieve any form of equity. I mean equity in terms of the number of kilometres of roads built in this country, the distribution of water sources, health centres and housing. We cannot achieve that if we continue using this archaic system. It is important that we yield the ground and allow the creation of a Budget Office in this particular Parliament to address those issues. I would like to visit various issues that were raised in the Speech. With regard to health, I would like, as I support the money that was voted for that particular sector, to mention that it is very disheartening to note that, over the last two years, in my constituency, for example, the Government has spent Kshs40 million to put up a modern sub- district hospital in the name of Iguhu. They did not allocate money for equipping and completion of that particular health centre which means that, the project is going to stall for the next 12 months when a lot of Government money has already been pumped into it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on this issue of health, I am also wondering whether the Ministry of Health and the Office of the President are aware of some of the serious conferences that take place in this country; that touch on serious health issues. Last year, we had the World Social Forum that attempted to justify some weird behaviour like homosexuality in this country. But the Office of the President was quiet as we saw our youth being exposed to groups that had the audacity of coming before cameras to advance the interests of homosexuals. This has replayed itself in a workshop that is currently taking place in this city which is advocating for the rights of women. I am surprised that, at that workshop, our Vice-President was represented by his Assistant Minister who is reported to have supported the issue of abortion. I would like to use the Floor of this House to say that as much as we support the rights of women, we are also going to use this House and use our various professional callings, to ensure that also the rights of the children both born and unborn are also protected. It is important for us to know whether the speech that was read at this particular workshop was the position of the Government or the position of the Vice-President as an individual. I do not believe that some of us support abortion. We are going to oppose abortion at every stage. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to find out from the Minister for Finance 2060 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 27, 2007 about the pyramid schemes. Hon. Members know the issue of DECI, Global and another one called ACID. I wonder how these particular organizations are licensed and allowed to operate to the extent of conning members of the public of millions of hard-earned money. The case of Global, for example, which is very active in Western Province, is actually run by a criminal. This is a criminal who stole Kshs400 million from a bank in Moshi. The man was arrested and arraigned before the court but he bribed his way out. He is now using that money to run a pyramid scheme that the Government has completely refused to regulate or close down altogether. Time has come for the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to start playing a more active role. There are certain banks in this country which, when you look at what they are doing, you wonder whether we are going to have a replay of what happened in the past. In the past, we had Urban- Rural Bank in this country which collapsed with the savings of members of the public. We also had Trust Bank which collapsed with the savings of the members of the public. Now there is a bank by the name Equity, the way it is operating, I am not too sure that this bank is not also going to go under with money belonging to members of the public. It beats logic how a bank can accept somebody to open an account that is going to be transacting millions of shillings, without that person being introduced by somebody who is credible. It beats logic how the minimum opening account can be reduced to Kshs400 unless that particular bank is up to mischief or it is politically- correct. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, before I end my speech, I want to compliment the Minister for factoring in the directive of the President that tuition fees should not be paid in secondary schools. I want to compliment him, but also remind him that if we can afford to pay tuition in secondary schools, then we can also afford to pay salaries for our nursery school teachers. We can also afford to waive the little charges in nursery schools. Most of our little children in our constituencies who want to go to Standard One are unable to go because of those particular levies in the nursery schools. I would like to say something about the East African Community. The combined population of 120 million in the East African Community after Burundi and Rwanda joined, plus the combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$40 billion has opened a lot of interest for investors and development partners into our region. It would be my advice to the Government that it should pursue a policy whereby we should enjoin our various development projects and programmes to projects that are funded under the community, because those ones are more likely to attract funding. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for example, the East African Road Network is attracting a lot of funding from the international community because of the above reasons like GDP and also the population. It, therefore, means that if we can link some of our most strategic roads to the East African Road Network it would be easier for those particular roads to get funding. I would like to conclude my speech by saying one thing about security. I support all fund allocations to the security department. However, we would like to see the results of the money. Today in the evening, I will be attending a fund-raising function to raise money for a young man who was working in Nairobi as a carpenter. He is from Kakamega. His head was hacked off with a saw by the Mungiki . Since it is on record in this House that some Ministers, Assistant Ministers and hon. Members of Parliament are associated with Mungiki, I am telling them that they should make their contribution, not by giving me money for this particular funeral, but withdrawing from the Government so that those of us who have the backbone of standing up and saying: \"To hell with Mungiki \" can take over and run those Ministries. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, regarding the issue of water, the allocation of money towards water projects continuously to certain parts of the country leaving out others, is really causing us a lot of problems in operating in various fora in the constituency. It is very annoying that June 27, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2061 certain parts in this country have been allocated hundreds of millions of shillings for water, when Kakamega District has only been allocated Kshs6 million. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}