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"id": 216695,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Mwiria",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Education",
"speaker": {
"id": 190,
"legal_name": "Valerian Kilemi Mwiria",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute in support of the good Budget that was read by the Minister for Finance. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, first, I want to appreciate what other hon. Members have pointed out; that, of all the budgets that we have had in the last four years, this is the most pro-poor Budget that we have witnessed. This is evidenced in the amount of money allocated for education, both primary and secondary schools, the expansion of university education, rural electrification programme, health and so on. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is also to the credit of the Minister that issues of taxation were highlighted, where we taxed many more of those that can afford, so that those who are not too lucky can benefit from that taxation. That is a pointer to, eventually, having what is referred to in the West as a welfare state, where those who can afford to pay, pay much more to support the majority that are not so lucky. However, as they pay the taxes, we need to take care of them. The people who are making it possible for us to do as much as we are doing as a Government are those in the business community, those who own industries, and those who are in June 27, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2063 gainful employment who, therefore, as a reciprocation from the Government need protection. If they are in industries, they need protection from counterfeit goods and cheap imports. They also need incentives which will attract them to invest in various institutions in this country. We hope that by the time we conclude this Session of Parliament, we will have privatised, virtually, all Government parastatals so that future politicians do not have opportunities to use Government resources to reward people who are politically well-connected. The move will also result in more productivity. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we support those people who are in the private sector, we need to be careful that we do not block an emerging middle class. That is why there are worries about the Excise Duty imposed on used vehicle spare parts. I think a majority of people who drive nowadays, those who have just joined the driving class, are benefiting from used vehicle spare parts. We need to support our people in terms of being very careful about share capital with regard to the establishment of banks. This is why I will differ with my friend, Dr. Khalwale, on the issue of Equity Bank. I think it is important for us to have banks that are easily accessible to majority of the poor people who do not have a lot of money to deposit. As long as we put the right mechanisms in place to ensure that customers are not exploited, that is the only way of supporting indigenous banks to compete with the well-established foreign banks of which much has been said about how much they make in terms of profits that are not necessarily channelled to benefit many Kenyans. With regard to issues affecting poor people, it is okay to tax water. However, if we impose tax on water, it is important to ensure that more water is available to all those people who cannot afford bottled water not only in the form of fountains in various parts of the city, but also in terms of ensuring that the water which is available to the majority of the people in Kenya is well treated than is the case, currently, so that people have confidence in using that water in view of the fact that bottled water will become more expensive. We need to congratulate the Minister for allocating money for settling squatters. There is already some money to relocate squatters. We need to be extremely sure that the mechanisms for identifying the squatters are rigorous, because there are many people who will come out to claim land because they think it is free. There are a lot of people who are used to benefiting from where they did not sow, or because they, just, want it for free. So, we need to have a very good mechanism to ensure that it is actually the real squatters who benefit. Secondly, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is important to ask ourselves: Apart from the resources that are available in the Budget, what else can make the available resources go a little further than it is the case? I think one of the ways is to ensure that we repossess grabbed public land, especially the former ADC farms. There are thousands of acres that are owned by people who never bought this land. There are people who got Government land and some of them are protected politically. If we can repossess that land, it could go a long way in supplementing the resources that are available in the Budget. That, itself, is a lot of land, especially when you think about the fact that many squatters are working in pieces of land that were grabbed from the Government. They are themselves squatters in land that really belongs to the people of this country, which was set aside for the people of this country. One of the benefits of a Budget is also to ask questions on how the Government can spend less on bureaucracies, constituencies, Members of Parliament, Ministers and so on. As much as we talk about new constituencies and districts, we need to have a way of rationalising how we can come up with those new districts and constituencies. If we want to create new constituencies, the idea is not just to carve out those constituencies from existing ones. Maybe the fairest way, given the political nature by which the constituencies have been allocated, is to revisit all the 2064 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 27, 2007 constituencies boundaries to ensure that there is some kind of fairness and rationalisation, so that it is not politics that determine how constituencies are established. This also applies to districts. We now have many districts because politicians apply to have new districts and they get them so that we have one district with one constituency and we have other districts that have three constituencies and so on, yet there are implications in terms of allocation of resources. If a new district goes with new resources, that then means we should form large districts and give them a proportional share of Government resources. There are issues about recruitment to the military, to the other disciplined forces and to the teaching, and so on. There are implications with regard to admissions to national schools. If you create a one constituency district, and it is treated the same as a larger district with regard to admissions to national secondary schools, there is a very clear injustice here in terms of some districts being privileged by way of the facilities they got. My argument is that, it is okay to have new districts and new constituencies, but let there be some form of equity so that these new constituencies are established on some form of per capita, especially when we have CDF and bursary money being distributed on the basis of constituencies and other resources being distributed to the districts. It is completely unfair if these resources are distributed to these institutions, if the same institutions exhibit a great deal of inequality in terms of both the population as well as other resources that are available. In this regard, I will also argue that if we will reduce on Government expenditure, especially on the politicisation of constituencies and the establishment of new Ministries and so on, we need to strengthen democracy to the extent that we will have a strong opposition, a strong Government and whereby politicians will not be available to change political parties. Politicians should not be available for sale like goats in a market place; just moving from one political party to another. We have problems here, because people are not in NARC(K) today and in Shirikisho tomorrow because they have any principles to uphold. They are not in LDP today and ODM(K) tomorrow because of any principles. They were not in DP last year and in NARC(K) this year because of any principles. This has got to situation where people are changing their political parties for the benefit of individual gain or to ensure that they are well stationed with those who are occupying positions of power. Democracy is not about that. It will be very difficult for us to have a strong opposition that will check the excess of Government or to have a Government that will do better than the previous one, if we can just be changing positions without regard for any guidance or any principles. It is for this reason that I think, if minimum reforms will make a difference in terms of making it impossible for politicians to move from one party to another and not to be available for sale at any time, it is worth pursuing that agenda. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me now turn to the issue of security. I am happy that we got more money for that. But there are certain issues that we have to deal with. First, is the issue about how many police officers we have as compared to the population, but more importantly, there are the issues of merit in the recruitment and promotion in the police force. If vacancies in the police force are available for sale, and in a lot of cases many of the candidates who qualify buy those vacancies--- Even on the issue of promotion, those officers who are promoted do not merit it, but they are able to find their way through some kind of corruption. How much do we expect in terms of those people being the best custodians of justice, if, in fact, they did not merit right from the beginning when they were being recruited? That is a problem that we must confront."
}