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"id": 226793,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Bahari",
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"speaker": {
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"legal_name": "Abdul Bahari Ali Jillo",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance. I want to be very brief, because there are many hon. Members who want to contribute due to their interest in this subject. I want to start by thanking Mr. Khamisi for bringing this Motion to the House, because its subject involves the livelihoods of many Kenyans. It is one of those fundamental things that we have been looking forward to in terms of turning around the economy of this country. I want to thank him, once again, for listing me down as one of the Members of the proposed Select Committee. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to state from the outset that all regions in this country have a lot of potential. I want to re-emphasise this fact basically, because if resources cannot be found on the land surface, certainly, they are below the ground. So, it is incumbent upon the Government to either directly invest to ensure that those resources are properly exploited for the benefit of the people of the Republic of Kenya, and particularly from the particular areas, or put in place the right infrastructure to enable private investors to come in with ease and be able to do the same for commercial purposes. You realise that Kilifi District, as things stand now, is one of those districts which benefit from relief food, basically because of how we have run down its economy. This is within the scheme of things, where some regions of this country have been kept permanently behind. It was easier for some crafty individuals to move in and plunder the resources of this district's economy. As you realise, the income disparities in this country continue to widen because of the initial decisions that were taken to consider some regions as low potential areas. Such areas are permanently considered so. Since the attitude of policy makers is not right, and given that resources will always be limited, the policy makers will want to forget about some areas. They will continue to believe that such areas have no potential. I want to repeat that the potential is there, and has always been there in those regions. Therefore, the income disparities at regional and individual levels have continued to widen. This was appreciated a long time ago, in the early 1970s, by four Members of Parliament, who elaborated this scenario. One of them was the late J.M. Kariuki, who said: \"When some people come to Nairobi from other parts of this country, they say they are coming to Kenya\". He said they were very right, because, according to him, this country has done very little to make those people identify themselves with this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, at that point in time, certainly, the late J.M. Kariuki 522 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 11, 2007 was talking about a deliberate Government decision to exclude some regions from this country's development agenda. Even where an attempt was made, like in this particular instance, to establish the cashewnuts factory, those fellows did not let go. They came on board and continued to plunder resources. So, you can imagine the levels of unemployment in this area. I am certain that this factory supported a lot of people, directly and indirectly. Probably, this was just one of the few factories that were available there. You can imagine in a region like that one, when this factory collapsed, certainly, a lot of people lost their means of livelihood. Mention has been made of Mariakani Milk Cooling Plant. The amount of money that is required to revive that plant, as per the recommendations of the Public Investments Committee (PIC), is not much. In fact, I do not even know why it is not operational. The Government can afford to finance the rehabilitation and revival of this factory. So, it must move with speed and ensure that these factories are revived. As the proposed Select Committee starts its work, it is only prudent that the Ministry moves with speed to provide some funds in the Budget to ensure that this factory is revived, without waiting for the recommendations of the Select Committee, because the Ministry already has all the facts. So, mine is only to re-emphasise that the Ministry should provide money in Budget Estimates, so that as recommendations are made, funds are available. It should not wait to look for the funds, after the recommendations of the Select Committee, with which to revive and make the factory operational. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}