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"id": 217630,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/217630/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Arungah",
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"speaker": {
"id": 292,
"legal_name": "Julius Odenyo Arungah",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Motion. Let me state that I rise to support the Motion and make a few observations. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Budget, as presented, paints a very rosy picture. I want to appreciate the fact that we are told the economy has grown by 6.1 per cent. I have no reason to doubt the figures from the Minister, but I think one of the issues that we have is that, there are certain areas of this country that may just continue to hear about this growth because, until they start producing, they will just be hearing about this growth, but they will never experience it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have in mind an issue of the growth, for example, in the dairy sector where only two years ago, the price of a litre of milk was Kshs6 and now it is about Kshs20. Therefore, for those farmers in the Rift Valley or Central Province who are producing milk, when they talk about growth, they can appreciate this growth. But for some of us in Western Province who are busy politicking from January to January, it is very unlikely that we shall experience this kind of growth. So, as I said, I am happy for us as a country that, indeed, we are on the right track. But even if that growth is exactly not to that extent that we have settled, there are better things to come. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to look at the concept of the actual allocations. I want to appreciate that the Minister has paid due attention, particularly in the area of the social sector. I appreciate that there is a reduction of 1 per cent from what he allocated last year towards education and health, but that reduction has been more than compensated for when you look at what I would call the economic sector; that is agriculture and infrastructure, where there has been approximately a 4 per cent growth in the allocations given. So, in the two sectors, that is the social and economic sectors, there is a reasonable allocation that has been given. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are other sectors that are equally important, and I am looking particularly at the Ministry of Immigration and Registration of Persons that has been given a mere Kshs350 million for a whole year. Where I come from in the western part of this country, we are experiencing a serious shortage of identity cards. Looking at this allocation, I begin to wonder whether this could not be the reason why, perhaps, this Ministry is not able to produce enough identity cards that our people require. This being an election year, everybody needs an identity card to be able to register as a voter. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, looking at the Budget, I see that the National Security 1952 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 20, 2007 Intelligence Service (NSIS) has been given a whopping Kshs7 billion. The Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife on the other hand, has been given only Kshs1.6 billion. For every £1 we invest in the tourism sector, we should be able to get £5. The growth of the tourism sector has been on an upward trend. This is a sector where if we invested in, we would get more than a commensurate return. The Minister should, therefore, have paid due attention to that. Like I said, for every £1 we invest in this sector, we are bound to get £5. I hope that this is the last time the Minister will look at the issue of the Budget on his own. When the proposed Bill comes into effect, we will work together with him so that we do not have to sit here and grumble about what he has done on his own. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have said that the Minister has allocated about 35 per cent of the total Budget to agriculture and infrastructure development. On infrastructure, our expectation, as Kenyans, is that this money will be spent prudently so that we see an improvement in the maintenance of our road network. We hope that there will be access to cleaner water and an increase in the availability, reliability and affordability of energy. At the moment, it is fairly erratic. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is true that the agricultural sector has experienced very interesting growth. There has been debate on how much this sector contributes to our GDP. I would like to accept the Minister's view that this sector contributes at least 25 per cent to the GDP. I also know that apart from contributing 25 per cent to our GDP, it also supports the manufacturing sector because most of our industries process goods that come from this sector. This sector also supports the distribution and the service industry. This sub-sector is a big source of employment for our people, particularly in the rural areas. It serves as a stimulus for all farm income generating activities in the rural areas. This is a sector that is also important when it comes to foreign exchange earnings. In this case, I am thinking about flowers and horticulture in general. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at the specific achievements in the agricultural sector, you will note that there has been a dramatic increase in the export of horticulture. There has also been improvement in the governance of co-operatives. But for the people that I represent, the people of Khwisero Constituency, they have never heard of this. They read about co-operatives in the newspapers. We do not have any co-operative. We do not produce to export. We have been told there has been a write off of debts in the coffee sector. Very few of my people grow coffee. I am told we have got the New Kenya Co-operative Creameries. As I said, we do not produce milk. There has also been talk of revival of irrigation schemes, which we do not have. This growth is confined to certain areas. Some of us are simply observers and not necessarily beneficiaries. I would have liked to see a scenario where the Ministry takes specific measures to assist the people we represent to participate more meaningfully in agriculture. I raised a Question early this year. The Minister for Agriculture said that they have a programme where they will identify some very vulnerable farmers in the countryside who they will support by giving inputs. I am not sure if the Minister has made specific provisions. I hope that this has been taken into account; that, come the next planting season, a few poor farmers from Khwisero Constituency will be assisted by being given inputs so that they can grow enough food for themselves instead of depending on hand-outs. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have taken the risk of telling my people the truth; that, there will be nothing falling from the skies, that we have to work hard for whatever we get. But at the very least, I expect the Government to be of assistance by at least making sure, for example, that the inputs are available and affordable. The Government should also make arrangements to organise some form of credit so that people can borrow money to buy these inputs to increase productivity. We have a scenario where money is given by the likes of the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) but as we all know, to access a loan of Kshs10,000, a farmer will have to pay something close to Kshs9,000 in various fees to get that credit facility. So, it does not make June 20, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1953 sense to ask the people I represent to initially pay Kshs9,000 for processing before they can access any loan. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am glad the Minister is here. I expect that he will help our farmers. I look forward to a day when the work of a farmer will be to go to the field to produce whatever he is producing. At the moment, we have a scenario where farmers have to do their own extension and veterinary work and be their own bankers and marketers. This is something which most farmers in this country cannot afford. The Government has a duty to streamline these functions so that the farmer is left with the very specific duties of simply producing. Other arrangements should be made so that the farmers can focus on farming alone. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am glad to note that the Minister has made provision for additional employment of about 11,000 teachers. Like my colleagues said, it is not that the shortage is that big, but the Ministry of Education should be encouraged to rationalise the teachers we have so that those who prefer to work in cities should be persuaded to go back to where they belong. I am sure if these teachers are employed, they will be adequate. I hope that the Minister---"
}