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{
    "id": 224825,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/224825/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 199,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Maore",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 284,
        "legal_name": "Richard Maoka Maore",
        "slug": "maoka-maore"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to give the Official Opposition response to this Motion. If you remember, we were here in June, when we passed the main Budget. We would have expected the Minister to obey the Government policy of not making road-side declarations and executing them, but financing those well thought-out and planned projects. I have an example of the Minister's story about the hawkers market at Muthurwa. If you remember very well, it was not a hurricane, flooding or the bursting of a river. But it was an issue where His Excellency the President went and opened a market. He said that there is money to put up a complex. Now, the Minister has said that he is trying to raise that money through the Supplementary Estimates. That is being irresponsible! Secondly, if you look at the increases, they are not on the development projects and programmes. About Kshs7 billion out of Kshs11 billion is on the Recurrent Expenditure. At the beginning of the year, there was no intention to raise salaries for civil servants. It is understandable if we are honouring the pay-hike for teachers. It was a promise that, when the economy improves, the Government would honour that promise. If you look at the entire Vote, from Vote 1 to Vote 46, everything is about increase in the remuneration of civil servants. I understand this is an election year, but we expect the Government to behave responsibly. Elections are just incidents that happen after every five years. You cannot commit a Government into promises, having in mind an election, which will happen again after another five years. We are pleading for restraint! The road- side promotions and mid-stream declarations are causing hiccups in our economy. That is not good planning. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to praise the Minister for stopping Kenya Electricity Generating Company's (KenGen's) Second Public Offer (SPO). If you remember, it was only last year when the Initial Public Offer (IPO) was done by KenGen. Now, before the shareholders could get dividends and assess the performance of the company, they were to be given another share offer. That is being irresponsible. It is showing that there is a problem with the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), as well as the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE). Now that the Minister has stopped the share offer, he should go a step further and order an investigation into insider-trading among the companies, and whether there is collusion and conspiracy between NSE and CMA. We are playing with Kenyans. We are damaging our reputation if we allow that kind of 850 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 24, 2007 behaviour to perpetuate. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you remember, at the beginning of this year, the Minister had intended to raise some money from Kenya Reinsurance Corporation Limited (Kenya Re.). Some allegations of corruption were labelled against some officials of Kenya Re. Those allegations were not triggered by either Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC), Kenya National Audit Office (KNAO) or Treasury! They were triggered by the media. We are asking the Government to be alert and streamline the management of public corporations. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you remember the Government was supposed to raise some money from the sale of Telkom Kenya. They were entangled in a web of secret sale of Safaricom shares. They were not able to know what is the actual value of Safaricom to Kenyans and to secret owners, whoever they are. They did not know whether they were partners in ownership. We need those things to be clarified. When the Government says it will make money from selling shares, it should sell the shares through IPOs. It should not come to the House towards the end of a financial year and start explaining: \"We had this! We have had that!\" That is not a tale or a story that should come from a Government. It is a story that should come from pedestrians who have no idea what planning is all about. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, another issue that we need to raise---"
}