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"id": 217867,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/217867/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Awori",
"speaker_title": "The Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs",
"speaker": {
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"legal_name": "Moody Arthur Awori",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I wish to second the Minister's Motion, first of all, by thanking him very much for his ambition. It is, indeed, a great ambition of Kshs700 billion in a country that has no minerals or oil; a country which only four and a half years ago was economically collapsing; a country whose environment has been ravaged, the infrastructure tattered, and the interest rates elusory. It is also a country where there is lack of credit to all small-scale traders. To me, this is a feat that needs the 1864 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 19, 2007 Minister to be congratulated. The Minister has achieved this feat by having been guided by a proper monetary policy, which has been built on the Vision 2030. This Vision is guided by the President's clarion call of a \"working nation.\" The Minister has achieved his ambition. As I hope, if this Administration will be given the next five years, we expect to see the future Budgets in trillions. A Budget does not have to be good or bad. A Budget has to be relevant and conform to the prevailing circumstances. It must be a Budget that is beneficial to all the citizens. Although the Recurrent Expenditure is still fairly high, the current Budget has put a lot of money in development. The only area that continues to take the lion's share is in the social and humanitarian spheres. Owing to the Free Primary Education (FPE), the additional number of children who have joined schools, and the introductory of the free tuition in secondary education, it is only so, that the Recurrent Expenditure on the social and humanitarian spheres should continue. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we are working towards affordable health services. As a result, naturally, the Minister has had to enhance the money allocated to the health sector. The Minister has set aside money for the agricultural sector. I want to thank him for having remembered the farmers who were not paid for their deliveries for crops such as tea and coffee. Naturally, we expect that this will be extended to other farmers, such as the ones dealing with cereals and livestock. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Minister has invested in tourism. We know that tourism is one of the fastest-growing sectors. Looking at the previous year, the sector brought in US$1 billion. An amount of US$1 billion from one sector is not peanuts. In continuing to spend money in social and humanitarian sectors, the Minister has recognised that he must continue to support the Youth Enterprise Development Fund. I know that there are some people who believed that there was necessity to add another Kshs1 billion to the Fund. However, they are forgetting that the Fund we set up in the last Budget is a revolving Fund. So, we expect that, every year, we will add on to it but not to allocate a similar amount. The Minister has set aside money for women. This is an area which is very important, in that, we will now have the women folk playing a much bigger role in the development of this country. There is need to support the Jua Kali sector because we know that the employment rate has increased within the sector. We are happy that the Minister has reduced the number of licences required in all the sectors, including the hotel industry. This will reduce the number of days required when a company is being set up. Mr. Speaker, Sir, on the tourism sector, we are conscious of the fact that with the World Cup coming to South Africa in 2010, there will be a spill-over to our country and we need to set up more hotels to cater for our visitors. I want to thank the Minister for the amount of money he has allocated to the Rural Electrification Programme, water and ICT. These are areas of great interest to the country that will help us to continue to sustain the growth in industries. In promoting agriculture, the Minister has been conscious of the fact that there is a big chunk of land in Arid and Semi- Arid Lands (ASALs) which needs to be put into production, provided the infrastructure, such as water and electricity are provided. Mr. Speaker, Sir, roads have really been neglected. The Kshs100 billion which has been allocated for roads will help to repair roads and construct new ones. We know that with regional blocs of trading, we are working in very competitive areas. We need to reduce cost of production. With good roads, there will be less breakdown of vehicles and, therefore, the cost of both production and transportation will be brought down and we will compete favourably with others. There are those who view the Budget as being a Budget for elections. That is not so. We should think in terms of the fact that we will be able to employ 11,000 teachers. Surely, that has nothing to do with elections. June 19, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1865 If we think in terms of having now paid the teachers what was promised more than ten years ago, that is just being realised. Mr. Speaker, Sir, what we are doing right now where taxation is concerned, is to ask people who need to take a little more drinks to do so knowing that they are helping to pay for the education of our people. Is it a crime or electioneering when we talk of upgrading our slums? There is a guideline which shows that, for those who are going to invest in housing for the poor, they will have tax relief. Those are some of the things that the Minister has put in the Budget that are making it attractive to the people. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to end by saying that, there is an old saying that, \"beauty is in the eye of the beholder\". This Budget is like beauty. So, those who want to oppose it, they will simply oppose it."
}