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"id": 217193,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. J. Nyagah",
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"legal_name": "Joseph Nthiga Nyagah",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this very important subject of the national Budget. I wish, like other hon. Members, to thank the Minister for the efforts he has put in preparing this Budget. I thank him for addressing June 26, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2029 important and critical issues that face this nation. However, I have a few suggestions, proposals and comments that I wish to make on how we could improve the situation. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, first, let me make a few general remarks. The poor will not get a chance to benefit in a way that the Minister had hoped. The packaging industry will be greatly affected by the increase in tax and the ban on plastics that has been introduced. I agree that there is need to conserve the environment. I would have liked to see what other countries do. We should have given the industries sufficient time to adjust. For example, we would have said that this rule will be effective from 1st January, 2009. That would have given factories and manufacturers of plastics sufficient time to buy new machinery in order to meet that very necessary requirement of reducing the environmental problems that we are facing. The prices of most products like milk will be affected by the introduction of that very sudden rule. Manufacturers should be given sufficient time to embrace that change, so that the process is handled properly. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank the Minister for the effort he has put with regard to the energy sector. I am happy with the direction we are taking towards providing electricity to rural areas. That is a welcome move. But I am concerned about a possible deficit. What is the Ministry doing with regard to that issue? It is not very clear to me. Somebody needs to tell us what the Ministry is doing in order to ensure that energy production by Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) and other power producers is increased in order to meet the demand that this country so desperately needs. As we get the details, I hope that issue will become clearer. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I pray and hope that this time round, Parliament will not guillotine Ministries. I pray that we change the rules and do whatever it takes so that we can discuss every single Ministry's budget. It is important that, in our oversight responsibility, we look at every Ministry's budget so that, we, as Parliament, can be seen by our nation to be performing the oversight role that is so critical. If we guillotine, as we traditionally do, key Ministries as we did last year, we are not being fair to Kenyans. We are being unfair to Kenyans. Please, let us change our Standing Orders and do whatever it takes. Let us extend our working hours so that we can go through Ministry by Ministry from next week. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am bothered by the deficit that has been created, amounting to Kshs109 billion. That is keynesian economics and I know it makes sense. South American countries tried it and they suffered. I would have liked to see a deficit grow gradually over a period of time, as we experiment with it. But to move from Kshs35 billion to Kshs109 billion in one go, we have to be very careful. How can we develop such a huge deficit so quickly? I support an element of deficit financing, but we must be careful on how quickly and how big we can create a deficit, particulary in an election year. It is very important that we do not play politics with the Budget in a year like this. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would have liked to see more done for the youth. We increased the figure for the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) by Kshs250,000,000. If you add that to the Kshs1 billion that has not yet been properly distributed and allocate to 20 million youths, I estimate that each young person will get Kshs62.50. A sum of Kshs62.50 is a big joke! I wish we had set aside a minimum of Kshs5 billion, so that the youth can benefit from the huge deficit budget that we have created. That way, we would have created an impact. The women were given Kshs2 billion. If you divide the number of women with that amount, each woman will get Kshs100. A sum of Kshs100 is a big joke! I wish we had created a figure that makes more sense, so that our women could benefit from that budgetary support. The concept is good, but the amount is too little. The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Government will increase that amount so that it could have an impact. The youth and women will get appropriate funds for their development. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to thank the Minister for the effort he has put on the 2030 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 26, 2007 agricultural sector. In particular, he has put a controversial figure of Kshs641 million to the coffee industry. It is a welcome move to pay coffee farmers who, over a couple of years, had lost their money. Could the Minister release that money to the farmers quickly, so that they could enjoy that money as soon as possible? That is a move in the right direction. Let us not keep it pending for too long. The farmers that I came across this morning want that money yesterday. It is a very welcome move by the Government. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, corruption worries me. The bigger the Budget, the more we must be careful that we do not get into possibilities of corruption. I read an article, the other day, about our police helicopters, which are going to be serviced at a cost of US$3 million. The new ones cost US$ 8 million. That is what India and Venezuela paid the other day. We should have put sufficient money to buy new helicopters for the police. Spending US$3 million for the second time--- We spent a similar amount of money in our days in the Government! In our days, we even paid US$12 million. It is time we scrapped those helicopters that the Minister of State for Administration and National Security wants, and give him new ones instead of overhauling old junks at an inflated price!"
}