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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for, once again, giving me the opportunity to contribute to this important Motion. I had just said that we commend the Minister for a well-argued Budget Speech, and the fact that the emphasis was on the right sectors, particularly education, infrastructure, health and agriculture. I hope that the money that has been set aside, particularly for infrastructure, will ensure that our roads, which are in very bad shape, are repaired. That we have allowed our roads to deteriorate to the levels they are at, particularly our major highways, is such a sad story. I know the Minister is trying his best; I know it will take time to do the tendering and to get contractors moving. But we must move now with speed to try and rehabilitate the major highways, particularly the Northern Corridor, and the road from here to Nakuru, Kisumu, Busia and from Eldoret to Busia and the other one through Nyeri to the border. Without proper infrastructure, the economy cannot grow. That is the engine that is going to create the jobs that we are looking for. So, I hope we will move with speed to do that. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on agriculture, the Minister did try to revive coffee and pyrethrum by allocating Kshs641 million on coffee and Kshs600 million on pyrethrum to be able to write off debts that are outstanding. But nothing was done for the sugar sub-sector. In fact, instead, the Minister did waive tax on industrial sugar, which is going to make it cheaper to import that sugar than produce it at the Mumias Sugar Company. In addition, on environment, because the Minister has imposed tax on plastic paper, the sugar that we buy on a daily basis is going to increase in prices by a minimum of Kshs5. This will 1948 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 20, 2007 apply across the board, not only on sugar but on salt and many other commodities that we use in our homes. This is not going to help the poor mwananchi . They are going to be poorer; they are going to suffer rather than benefit from this Budget. I know there are Members who are engaging the Minister now and he is not listening to these important points that I am making. These are important points to our consumers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, which we are grappling with right now to see whether the youth can actually benefit. The conditions that were originally set were too extraneous. Now, since the campaigns are here, as a campaign gimmick, we have added the Women Enterprise Development Fund. It is all very well having these Funds. But without the proper machinery for their disbursement, we are not going to benefit our womenfolk. I would like to implore the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services to bring a Sessional Paper to this House for us to debate that Fund before they issue regulations on how it can be accessed. We need to know how exactly we want the womenfolk to benefit from that Fund. Setting up a Fund on its own will not get us very far. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in terms of growth, we have tended to concentrate too many resources on the metropolitan City of Nairobi. I would have liked the Minister to have given incentives on how we can get growth in other centres of this Republic. We need to encourage growth centres away from the City of Nairobi in order to reduce congestion in terms of traffic and increase opportunities for our people out there, so that the young who leave universities and other schools do not all have to troop to Nairobi if they are looking for employment. They must have an opportunity to get jobs elsewhere. We can only do that by having incentives for growth centres away from the metropolitan City of Nairobi. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister tried to take care of pensioners. Some of us are pensioners. He has waived taxation on pension. However, I have talked to some actuarial experts who have told me that, that waiver will come on the attainment of the age of 65 years. Experts do tell us that by the time pensioners reach the age of 65, 65 per cent of them are dead. So, they will not benefit from the tax waiver that the Minister gave to pensioners. People should have been allowed to enjoy their pension immediately they retire. Even those who retire voluntarily at the age of 50 years should be allowed that tax waiver for it to benefit them. We appreciate the Government's intention to try and assist poor parents to meet their children's secondary school fees by waiving tuition fees in public secondary schools. However, that still leaves a very large portion of fees payable, which has to be paid by parents, including not only the additional fees that have to be paid in private schools but also additional costs relating to books, equipment, sports, et cetera . This also places a burden on parents and the communities to put up additional classrooms. Next year, we will have a major influx into secondary schools. Unless we have additional classrooms, particularly in day secondary schools, to accommodate the influx of students, we will have a major problem. Somebody mentioned the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). We have the CDF, but the Minister was talking about the CDF as if he has some discretionary powers over the Fund. I would like to say that the CDF was created by an Act of Parliament. It has statutory requirements. It is a percentage of the revenue that is collected. If we apply the percentage correctly, this year's allocation to the CDF should be higher than that shown in the Estimates. Last year, the CDF kitty got Kshs10 billion. If you calculate this based on the revenue we collected last year, this comes to 3.7 per cent. If we apply the same percentage this year, we should, in fact, be looking forward to having Kshs15.8 billion in the CDF kitty. That would be the correct figure, because it is worked out as a percentage across the board. Unless we are going back to a lower percentage, in which case the June 20, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1949 Minister would have to explain why we are going lower rather than maintain the same percentage that we had last year. On that particular aspect, the Minister has no discretionary power. It is a percentage of the revenue collected. Therefore, I hope that we will be able to restore that figure, taking into account the revenue that will be collected. If we apply the percentage that we applied last year, we should be able to have Kshs15.8 billion in the CDF kitty. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}