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"id": 216723,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Samoei",
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"legal_name": "William Samoei Ruto",
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"content": "Of specific concern to me is the money that the Minister intends to invest in infrastructure development. Infrastructure will play a very central role in turning the economy of this country round. It will generate a high level of activity and ease the environment in which businesses can go on in our country. I am thinking about infrastructure in terms of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), our road network, rural electrification and expanding our railway network. I would have expected the Minister to go a step further. It is possible for us to increase funding, especially to that sector, if we encourage private-public partnership. It is possible for us to raise between Kshs200 billion and Kshs300 billion. That is the money we require to put in place the kind of infrastructure that will give this country the opportunity to take off into the 21st Century as a first world economy and country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the proposal by the Minister falls short of even looking at avenues of raising more money through long term or specific bonds for infrastructure. It is possible for us to source these bonds around the world. It is also possible for us to even concession our roads. We can then bring on-board funds that would, otherwise, have not been brought on-board in the Budget. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we will not be able to achieve an economic growth rate of 10 per cent or 12 per cent unless we begin to explore other avenues of raising money to enable us do what we have to for our country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to ask the Minister to be more specific. We vote a lot of funds to the Office of the President; specifically the docket on Provincial Administration and National Security. However, insecurity is a very serious issue in our country. I think after poverty, insecurity is the second most serious problem in our country. We will continue to talk, but unless we sort out the security situation in our country, we will not attract the three 2074 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 27, 2007 million or five million tourists we are planning to attract in the next few years. We will not be able to give the much desired jobs to our youths. We cannot persuade people to invest in our country if our security situation is not right. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I did not hear any comment from the Minister on how he intends to change the process that has been going on at the Office of the President. This is where purchases of security hardware; vehicles and other security items, would be much more transparent. The people of Kenya, would then, get value for the money they spend in that sector. So long as we classify even the purchase of motor vehicles under the security docket as secret, we will continue to pay two or three times the cost. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister should be candid to this country. He should open up purchases of security items to, at the very least, a committee of this House, so that they are open to scrutiny. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, so long as the Mungiki adherents and other crooks continue to roam our country, we continue to earn ourselves a very bad name. I took the trouble to go through his Budget Speech to find out the concrete steps he mentioned on adding the number of security personnel to the ones we have. It is unfortunate that the Minister told us here that they were going to employ 28,000 additional police officers. This was contained in his written speech, but 28,000 officers are not provided for in the Budget. This means that he took this House for a ride. What he said then, is not what was in his speech! Unless the Minister gives specifics on how many police officers they want to employ within the current Budget, we will continue to go round in circles when it comes to security items. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was shocked when the Minister indicated that, in this Budget, he intends to increase the share capital of local banks from Kshs250 million to Kshs1 billion. It is a shame that after the Minister himself had admitted that the banking sector in our country is controlled by foreigners, he went ahead, in the same Budget and on his admission, to propose legislation that is actually going to close down the small banks that are owned by indigenous Kenyans. What are we saying? What is the Minister telling this country? How does the Government sponsor regulation that is actually going to drive out local businessmen from doing business in favour of foreigners? What are we telling the local entrepreneurs? Simply because we cannot raise the billions of shillings that foreign banks can raise, we are telling them to close down? I would rather expect the Minister to allow these banks and insurance companies to compete and be driven out of business by competition and not by Government regulations. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, since the Assistant Minister for Finance is here, I would like to tell him that the Minister for Finance should reconsider and actually withdraw the proposals he has made on this attempt to drive out local entrepreneurs from participating in banking and insurance. This is because, for sure, no mergers, in history, have ever succeeded that much. Many local entrepreneurs will suffer a great deal and will have to close down. The net effect is that the banking and insurance sector will be controlled by foreigners. I do not think it is fair. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in this Budget, much as the Minister has mentioned things that are pro-poor, I do not see anything in this Budget that will get us to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. Apart from poverty and insecurity, the biggest problem that bedevils this country is the inequality of the people of Kenya. I would have expected the Minister to increase the allocation for the only Fund that ensures that funds get to the rural areas, that is, the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF), from the current 2.5 per cent to 10 per cent. That way, people in the rural areas can begin to access funds and we can begin to bridge the gap between those who have and those who do not have. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as they say today, there are two sets of people in this country. Kuna wale wanajivunia kuwa Wakenya na kuna wale wanavumilia kuwa Wakenya! June 27, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2075"
}