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"id": 217220,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
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"legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I want to congratulate this Government for being a very fast learner and a studious copier of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) agenda. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I remember the other day when we said that we will introduce free secondary education. Very quickly, they set up a team to look at the possibilities of introducing free secondary education. The other day, when I said that we will go for a 50-50 representation of women in our administration, the President announced yesterday that he will go for a 50-50 representation of women in his administration. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other time, I talked about infrastructure number one, infrastructure number two and infrastructure number three. For the first time in the history of this Government, this Budget increased the development budget from 17 per cent, whereas it had stagnated for too long, at 30 per cent. So, I am happy, at least, that ideas from this side are jolting them to try and do something for this country. But I want it to be noticed that, that is still not original. The Government, somehow, is stuck with the argument of self praise that it has attained a 6 per cent rate of growth. To it, that is something so big. What they are forgetting to tell Kenyans is that, in 2004, they changed the system of computing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the old system to international understands. That, in effect, increased the GDP by 2 per cent. So, if you go by the Nyayo mark, it is not 6 per cent but 4 per cent. Be that as it may, I want to put a few figures here. Our GDP, by the Government's own admission, grew by 6.1 per cent. But in that same period, Tanzania's economy grew by 6.2 per cent and Uganda by 6.5 per cent. Africa's continental average is 6.5 per cent. So, we are still below Africa's average. On the other hand, inflation was 14.5 per cent, compared to 8.1 per cent in Uganda and 7.3 per cent in Tanzania. The public debt stood at US$10.4 billion, compared to US$6 billion in Tanzania and US$1.8 billion in Uganda. The trade deficit here stood at US$4 billion, as opposed to US$2.1 billion in Tanzania and US$0.9 billion in Uganda. What am I trying to say here? I am trying to say that, what you have seen here is really nothing so much earth-shaking that the Government needs to be shouting too much from the top of the roof all the time! Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I said that the economy has been growing at the peripheral June 26, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2037 sectors. That is the reason why the effect is not being felt on the ground by the common man. The productive sectors are not growing at a very fast pace, particularly to create employment. The manufacturing sector grew by 6.9 per cent. In Tanzania, it grew by 8.6 per cent. The construction sector grew by 6.3 per cent compared to 10 per cent in Tanzania and 11.3 per cent in Uganda. So, what I am trying to tell the Government is this: It still needs to do much more than it is doing now for a serious effect to be felt on the ground by the people. The increased allocation to infrastructure is Kshs62 billion. I want to congratulate--- We have said, ourselves, that we intend to reduce the recurrent expenditure substantially, to bring it almost to 50-50 with development expenditure. That is when we are going to realise the difference. This is a developing country. At the moment, the recurrent expenditure is still too much bloated, when you compare it to the development expenditure. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to congratulate them for exempting the monthly pension payments from being taxed. I wonder why they are saying \"senior citizens\" of this country, and yet you will only be able to benefit at the age of 65, when people are retiring at the age of 55. The pension payment is too small. Why do you continue to deduct somebody who is no longer benefiting from salary increases, when those people have served up to the age of 55? I would like that to be introduced as soon as somebody retires from the service. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other day, I was in Busia Town. I was appalled by what I saw there. Inefficiency is one of the major vices of this Government. In Busia Town, I found a queue of nearly two kilometres of trucks, waiting to pass the border. I was told that it takes, sometimes, three days for a truck to cross the border. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, does this Government know what they are doing to the economies of the neighbouring countries; Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi? Why do they retain goods destined for Uganda at our own borders for three days? You are slowing down the pace of development of that economy just because of corruption. The Port of Mombasa is congested right now because of the containers that are not being cleared. We are being told that the Government has increased revenue because of more efficient collection of taxes. But at what cost is it being done to the economy of this country? This is at a very heavy cost. Business itself is suffering because of corruption in revenue collection institutions. I want to associate myself with the sentiments already expressed by my colleagues about the removal of duty on refined sugar. This would have a very catastrophic effect on the sugar industry in this country and must be opposed. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister talked so casually about security. When Prof. Maathai was talking here about security, she talked about the extra-judicial killings. The Minister of State for Administration and National Security rose on a flimsy point of order. Extra-judicial killings in this country are increasing by the day. Police are shooting innocent people without any good reason. Why should the police shoot to kill? The police should shoot to apprehend, not to kill. Each time we are told that the suspect was carrying a weapon and he or she was shooting at the police. The other day they shot and killed a woman in Kisumu's Nyalenda Estate. They said that she was selling bhang . The lady was moving away from the police carrying her hands up. She was shot from the back. Later on the police took a panga and put it beside her and said that she had a"
}