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{
"id": 216967,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/216967/?format=api",
"text_counter": 224,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mrs. Tett",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Housing",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, admittedly, as a country, we are presently doing as well as we could. That must be attributed not only to ourselves as leaders, but to Kenyans as a whole. Looking at this Budget, it is very commendable of the Minister to have touched on all spheres of life. We also attribute that progress to Kenyans because they have now adopted the motto: \"A working nation\", which was proclaimed by His Excellency the President. We have a long way to go to catch up with the more developed countries. But there is a lot of room for massive improvement. We are not saying that we have finished, but we have a long way to go. Definitely, we will get there. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we must strive and invest more money in housing and education. That is not to say that other sectors must be ignored. Not at all! It simply means that, if we succeed in housing our people and educating our children, we will go a long way. Before this Government took over the running of this country, we had many children who had not seen the \"inside\" of a classroom. They were loitering all over the country because their parents could not afford school fees. There were almost 3 million children who were out of schools. That is a huge number. It is almost 10 per cent of our population. The number now is almost half of that. We are doing the best we can. If we do not offer education to our children, at the end of the day, they will go out and become thugs. They will turn to drugs and do many other things that could cause them to end up in jail or die. It is very important that we educate our children. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of housing, the Minister allocated a lot of money for upgrading our slum areas. We have to uphold the dignity of our people. In Kibera slums, for example, raw sewage passes through the doors of residents. We know that many diseases occur as a result of dirty environments. When people fall sick, medical expenditures become high. People do not go to work. Many other bad things happen in the slum areas. Therefore, upgrading of slums especially in urban areas is paramount. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, housing comes with patriotism and nationalism. That is why the Government must focus on housing. We have seen that many investors have invested heavily in the 2110 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 27, 2007 housing sector in this country. The private sector has invested between Kshs20 billion to Kshs40 billion this year. But they have invested on the higher and middle cadres. We need to come down and invest in the lower cadres. The people who earn between Kshs4,000 to Kshs5,000 need to get proper housing that they can afford to pay per month. That is why we, in the Ministry of Housing, are asking the private sector to invest in the lower cadre. That will be apart from what the Government is doing. It is upgrading the slum areas so that, at the end of the day, our people live in dignity. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you visit slum areas, you will find that there are no toilets. They use the so-called \"flying toilets\". The era of \"flying toilets\" must come to an end. That is why the Minister has put in a lot of money to upgrade slum areas. Our partners like UN Habitat are also trying to help in upgrading the slums. We really appreciate their support. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the tourism sector now earns the country a pinnacle of almost Kshs60 billion. That is a lot of money. That sector had totally collapsed. Many jobs were lost because tourists never came. There were no incentives for them to come. At the moment, tourism is really booming. That is enabling the Government to employ many people in the tourism industry. Even the private hotels are also employing many people. In the past, all those people did not have jobs. Many were sacked. As a result, the poverty rate in Kenya is declining because we have been able to employ many people in that sector. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the building sector employs many people. When the private sector is investing almost Kshs40 billion per year, that is a lot of money. That goes to employ the people and help the Jua Kali artisans, who supply a lot of goods such as cement and so on. So, that sector helps the economy of this country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is beyond doubt for most Kenyans today that the Government's Economic Recovery Strategy is working. I would like it to go on record as saying that the Ninth Parliament made this possible. In the past, the economic growth was on decline, but now it is on its way to recovery. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, my personal plea is that we, as leaders, must desist from perceiving Government's score card as a political campaign tool."
}