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{
    "id": 224853,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/224853/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 227,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Sambu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 137,
        "legal_name": "Alfred B. Wekesa Sambu",
        "slug": "alfred-sambu"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to make a few comments in support of these Supplementary Estimates. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am happy that the Ministry of Finance is including funds in these Supplementary Estimates to increase the grain reserves. Whereas we want to increase the grain reserves, it is sad that many maize farmers have not been paid. We were told that the Government released a sum of Kshs1.2 billion to pay maize farmers. However, to date, farmers have not been paid for their deliveries. We have farmers who have not been paid for the maize they delivered as way back as January. I urge the Government to pay grain farmers who delivered their produce immediately. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am happy that teachers will be getting their salaries adjusted upward as per what they demanded. However, we know that in the long term, as my colleagues said, we have to employ more teachers. This is because the ratio of 80 pupils to one teacher is not functional at all. It is unmanageable. We are just pushing those children from Standard One to Standard Eight without them learning at all. We have to employ more teachers so that the teacher-pupil ratio comes down to a maximum of 35 to 40 pupils per teacher. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of release of funds by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other foreign donors which were frozen, the unfreezing is good. However, let the interest rates charged by local banks also be reduced. Otherwise, this goodwill will be of no good to Kenyans. It is unfortunate that up to today the \"Donde Bill\" has never seen the light of day to become a law. 856 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 24, 2007 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on road maintenance, I am happy that it is being allocated a sum of Kshs2.5 billion. However, I believe in the main Budget, it should get quite a substantial amount. Kenya is an agricultural country. Therefore, without a good infrastructure, our farmers cannot access markets for their produce. I wish the Minister was here because we are now experiencing disasters on our roads because of heavy rains. We are being told that they will be getting some emergency funds for emergency repairs. I wish to inform the Government that there is a bridge along the Kapsabet-Eldoret Road C39 which has broken down. This bridge is located some few kilometres to Kapsabet Town. The users of this road are in danger. I am urging the Ministry to use its emergency funds to repair it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister has said a sum of Kshs1.3 billion will be used to subsidise the cost of energy which KenGen sells to the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC). I want KPLC to reciprocate. I would urge the Minister for Energy to reduce the electricity connection fee from the current Kshs32,000 to even Kshs10,000. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there will be no point for the Government to take power to the rural areas, instal transformers and then the KPLC demands Kshs32,000. It is very difficult even for a teacher, an assistant chief or a chief in the rural area, to raise Kshs32,000 at once. Since we are subsidising power from KenGen to the tune of Kshs1.3 billion, KPLC should also lower the connection charges, particularly to the rural consumers. There is also the issue of the KPLC importing electricity poles. The Government must do something about this. We have allowed the Pan African Paper Mills, which I understand is going to close down very soon because it has ran broke, to finish all our forests. I come from an area which provides a lot of forest cover in this country, but the Pan-African Paper Mills has destroyed all our forests and they do not replant trees. I am asking this Government, like I asked the previous Government, to re-start the shamba system. There will be no planting of trees unless we have the"
}