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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, first of all, I would like to thank the hon. Members of our august House who attended this Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Barbados. However, this Joint Parliamentary Assembly should not be used merely as a chance of touring other countries. When we go out of the country, we get exposed and learn a lot. 574 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 11, 2007 A report on such exposition should be brought back here, so that we learn something from them. Let me quote the famous English poet and playwright, William Shakespeare, who once said: \"The whole world is but a stage, and all men and women are merely players. They enter through the entrance and leave through the exit\". The ACP-EU is actually a stage for all of us. Then, we go and act and the act we get from that stage should be disseminated. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the whole world or globe has become but a small village whereby, as the hon. Koech has said, even in the East African region, we should see beyond East Africa. In fact, we should now be thinking of the United States of Africa rather than the East African region. We should learn some things from the ACP-EU forum and bring them here. We can even take from the shelves some of the laws, come here and panel beat them to suit the whims of our country and practise them the way they are. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have in mind a country like Cuba that invested heavily in human resource. Some countries are not endowed with natural resources, but there is no better natural resource than a human being. Cuba invested heavily in education so that they produced more doctors than they need. Today, doctors from Cuba are found all over the world. Just this afternoon, an answer came from the Minister about the US$600 million that is being remitted by Kenyans in the diaspora. This could be increased tenfold or even a hundredfold if invested in education, by educating more Kenyan professionals than we need, for export even to the ACP, AU and even EU countries, for that matter. But we are doing things here haphazardly and in a narrow- minded way, whereby we do not look beyond our noses. Even in the expansion of our airports, as hon. Raila said while making his contribution, Kenyan airports can handle all the aeroplanes in Africa, thus making Nairobi the hub, controlling all other airports in Africa. But this can only happen if we plan properly. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, recently, we had the privilege of meeting some of the airport managers of the world. One of the busiest airports in the world is an airport in Atlanta, Georgia, whereby they cry that Kenya is actually losing out. Kenya is well placed to control all planes coming into Africa and the regional countries could only be picking their passengers from Nairobi to their countries. All aeroplanes from the ACP, EU and AU could be landing in Nairobi. Kenya Airways, for that matter, could even be flying the rest of Africa into ACP and EU countries from Nairobi if they could expand their fleet and look at trade, not only in the African region, but in the ACP and EU countries. Trade could be expanded--- When we make something, we should not make it for the Kenyan or African market only, for that matter. We should look at the ACP and EU as a small basket for Kenya. We should think of what Kenya can do to them. This could actually greatly expand our economy and create the 500,000 or more jobs as promised if we were looking at the labour market in all ACP and EU countries, and not only in the Kenyan market. Here, we have been a bit narrow-minded in only developing the labour market for the Kenyan region. Recently, our teachers were going out to Seychelles and other African countries. We should have taken a cue from that and produced even more doctors, economists and all other professionals for the ACP and EU countries. By doing that, we could have expanded a number of employment opportunities that we have been looking for. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, allow me to also look at the ACP as a small basket for Kenya in terms of trade, tourism and other things that can help our country. Even in our horticultural sector and the flower market, when a Kenyan businessman gets a point, like in Europe, all heads look at Europe as if it is the only market, leaving other countries within the region or in ACP countries that can offer even better prices than the European market. It is just recently that China came to tickle us up so that we can double our efforts of trade between Kenya, China, Japan and other Asiatic countries. We should not wait until those countries come to us looking for what we can produce for them. Time has come when we should actually go out and see what we can send to those countries before they come looking for what we can send to them. This is where we have gone wrong for many years, but time has come when we must wake up. April 11, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 575 If you go through the resolutions passed during the ACP-EU JPA, none of them has been implemented to date, yet they are for the benefit of countries like Kenya and are for the benefit of the people of Kenya. Various departments that should implement those resolutions take the Report and keep it on their shelves, where it gathers dust. It is high time those reports were taken off those shelves and all the relevant resolutions passed therein implemented, one after the other, for the benefit of our country and the people of Kenya. Time is coming when Kenyans will not sit back, but will break the barrier between Kenya and other countries because the people themselves are winning. Hon. Koech has just said that the people of East Africa alone are looking forward to having a United States of Africa sooner than later, yet our governments are holding back this union which should have come yesterday rather than today because of their selfish ends. Many people have been to the East African region. All the people of Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya; the ordinary, common man is wishing that this union was realized yesterday. This union will expand our market and we will have over 100 million people looking for resources and trade. This could create great employment opportunities for us. Imagine travelling from here to Uganda or going across the border without being asked for a visa or passport as if you are going into your own country. Indeed, it should be your own country! This type of trade is what this region should have embraced many, many years ago. Time has come for us to stand up and stop being selfish. If you want to be in your own cocoon, you will never trade with others outside your own cocoon and as such, you will never develop, for that matter. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in conclusion, I would like to appeal to all my colleagues in Parliament and, of course, all those who attended the joint assembly in Barbados that, when they come back with such a Report, they should organize a seminar for hon. Members so that we can dig deep into the details with a toothcomb to see what we can implement from the resolutions which were passed in such joint parliamentary assemblies. With those few remarks, I beg to support. Thank you."
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