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"id": 224827,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Maore",
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"speaker": {
"id": 284,
"legal_name": "Richard Maoka Maore",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will use less time. I had not prepared myself to use the 30 minutes. I will be magnanimous to other hon. Members. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you follow what has been happening with the issue of inflation--- The Minister and the Government have been telling us that the economy is growing. Yes, we can see that the economy is growing. But it is growing on the left hand while the right hand is misbehaving. Look at the price of fuel from the date we passed the Budget. It was Kshs74 per litre. Today, it is going up towards Kshs80. So, when you tell people that the economy has improved, they do not feel it! It is not in their pockets. Maybe, it is in the NSE. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the country is edging closer towards an election and we have between 5 million and 10 million Kenyans who will not vote because they do not have Identity Cards. Many young people over 21 years, even from my own constituency, who do not come from the border community, are being asked to give an affidavit as proof of getting an identity card. There is no rationale under the sun where the chief ignores the elders and respects an affidavit. The lawyers are charging between Kshs1,000 and Kshs2,000 to give those affidavits. The only headache the politicians, sitting Members of Parliament and aspirants are facing is to cough that money and provide forms to those youths in the hope that they will vote for them. There is no guarantee! What is happening is that the lawyers are making money. The only normal thing that has happened is that people are making money because there is a lot of confusion. It is confusion because the Minister in charge of the registration of persons and the director or officers cannot explain why we should have blank forms signed. They are sent en masse to special people to pick them. They fill them and then they are accepted by the fellow issuing the Identity Card (ID), without a letter from the chief saying that such a fellow was able to start living in that area without an ID because the Government was inefficient and it was not providing ID cards. That is the only reason why people did not pick them, but not out of their own volution. People did not ignore to pick IDs; they were not there. Those who were there know that it was out of political manipulation. If you did not come from certain areas or region, you were not supposed to get IDs, because you were likely to vote against the Government at that time. I hope this Government is not doing the April 24, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 851 same. So, we need some streamlining of this issue of IDs to make sure that our people are not disenfranchised at the end of this year when it comes to voting. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue that I want to raise, is that of roads. I am glad that the Minister for Roads and Public Works has said that there are no actual monies that are going to be withdrawn from this project. If you look at the very many road projects that are going on, they are very essential and important. We need not withdraw any monies or try to adjust any of the allocations that are done in the budget. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, there is the issue of environment. The entire world community is talking about the global warming or climatic changes. We are having a threat on our five water towers. We have not had any statements from either the Minister for Finance or Minister for Environment and Natural Resources, talking about a massive programme on afforestation in this country. If you go towards the east of Somalia, you will find very hostile weather. The permanent drought that we keep facing is arising out of the deforestation that we have been perpetuating for many years. We need to harmonise between the local authorities, the Forestry Department of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), so that we can have a harmonious policy to protect our forests and environment, especially the water catchment areas. This calls for money and Government planning. It is not done just by giving stories in seminars or workshops. We need to plant trees. This cannot happen if we do not plan. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, so, I request the Minister, maybe in the substantive budget, to liaise with the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, so that they can allocate money to protect and safeguard our water catchment areas and restore the catchment areas of Mau, Cherengany, Aberdares, Mt. Kenya and the rest of the smaller areas. When these catchment areas are gone, there will be no electricity, water and rain. It will be a disaster. We all know it, but we are doing very little about it. The Government should be able to change this attitude, then we can have afforestation in our country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}