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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the Budget Speech. I must commend the Minister for his efforts to reduce the various licences at very high speed. But he still has a long way to go, in order to eliminate many of these business licences, because they discourage investment and encourage economic stagnation. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are a number of players who are involved in the implementation of these licences. Notorious of these players includes the Nairobi City Council (NCC), where we have inspectors who harass people, especially, in Industrial Area, by demanding all sorts of licences and regulations to do with the factories that they have there. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is very disappointing to note that a successful youth programme will only get an additional Kshs250 million. Although the Minister can be commended for introducing the Women Enterprise Development Fund, the amount allocated to it will make very little impact. We have already seen the impact of the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) at the grassroots level, which can be felt. So, when we provide Kshs2 billion for the Women Enterprise Development Fund and Kshs1 billion for the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, the impact is going to be very little. However, we look forward to this Women Enterprise Development Fund and hope that the Government will implement it, the way it is applying the Youth Enterprise Development Fund. We have began to hear voices that the Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organization thinks that this is going to be its fund. It will not be so because that is a divided Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with very little capacity and bad record in many places, corruption and misuse of the facilities that they have. I do hope that they will copy from hon. Dr. Kuti in terms of implementation and involve the legislators and established financial institutions in the country, like the Kenya Women Trust Fund. In fact, the ladies have taken advantage of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund which is in operation now, and they are accessing the Fund 15 times more than the young men. Of course, we will talk about the additional duties in the Finance Bill. But, I must say that the 20 per cent increase in duty on second-hand spare parts is not a very good thing for the common man. We are told that the Minister intends to reduce road carnage by imposing this tax, but spare parts will still come into the country, anyway. However, most accidents in Kenya are caused mainly by bad roads and bad driving on the part of many Kenyans. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on security, yes, it is good to increase the number of policemen. June 19, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1881 But I think it is important also to think about the welfare of those who are already working, in terms of their housing, salaries and transportation. You will find that in Samburu District, for example, we have a District Commissioner who is in charge of security and, yet, he does not have means of transport. In terms of security, I think this country is benefiting a lot from tourism. An hon. Member alluded to success in the tourism sector. Indeed, it is true, but we need to realise that tourists come to this country to view wildlife. Wildlife is found in pastoralists area. In fact, the bulk of wildlife, more than 70 per cent, is found outside protected areas or national parks. This is the same land which is occupied by pastoralists, and yet when you look at the trickle down effect of the billions earned from the sector that go to the pastoralist communities, it is very little. I want to join hon. Bahari in saying that this Budget is not pastoralists friendly. Pastoralists also work very hard and pay taxes. We are not lazy people. With regard to roads, it was very sad to learn from the Minister for Roads and Public Works that although monies have been put in the roads sector, the capacity to construct the roads is lacking due to shortage of engineers, consultants and contractors in the country. This is a very sad situation. The Government needs to address this issue very seriously and critically to see if we can get external support in terms of implementation of the roads sectors project. It is sad to say that, indeed, even if we had Kshs160 million to repair roads, we do not have contractors. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to the aid policy, we need to seriously think in terms of our capacity to absorb funds that have been allocated. It has been indicated that there will be more than Kshs80 billion from donor funding. I am sure that only about 40 per cent or 50 per cent of those funds will be utilised mainly due to donors having interests in certain parts of the country and sectors. It is time that we came up with our own aid policy and have a say on where donors should go and what sectors they should address and what procurement policies should apply. That is the biggest problem we are having in aid absorption. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is good to learn that county councils will also be reading their budgets in public. This is long overdue. We need to have our county councils being more transparent. As you know, most clerks carry cheque books in their pockets. Most of them do not keep proper accounting books. Their books have not been audited for many years. We need to take action on that. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to this particular Budget, more than 7 per cent of the Budget is not transparent. I wish the Minister of State for Defence was listening to me. The Budget for the Ministry of State for Defence is not transparent. There is no reason why people should not know how much money goes to the Ministry of State for Defence. That is not good. There is some secrecy surrounding the budget for the Ministry of Defence. There are no secrets any more. One can get that information from journals and the internet. People should know how much we are spending in buying military wares. We need to open up the budget of the Ministry of State for Defence so that we support areas that have to do with the welfare of our soldiers, for instance, buying boots, uniforms, taking care of their quarters, transportation, maintenance of their lorries, among others. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to the National Security Intelligence Service, it is a one line budget of Kshs6 billion. This information is not adequate. We need to have it broken down so that we know how much the NSIS officers earn in terms of salaries. What is so secretive about the one-line budget? What do these people do? The officers only listen to our mobile phone conversations, and yet there are no secrets any more. What there is---"
}