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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I stand to support the Report of the Kenyan Delegation to the 115th Assembly of the IPU. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I note with interest, the fact that the IPU has a four- year plan to promote peace and governance. Unfortunately, the Report states that the activities of IPU, on this very important topic, are to be financed by donors. They have already given requests to donors in Geneva and hopefully, they will be getting support for the topic. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, while I support donor assistance wherever it is possible, I must say that we should take donor assistance with a lot of care. Personally, I would recommend that the Kenyan Parliament, led by the Speaker, should suggest to the IPU that the Parliament's of the IPU should contribute towards this very good course. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, donor finances come and go. They are available when donors feel like and not available at other times. So, really on a subject as important as promotion of peace and governance, we should be able to stand on our own and finance our activities in the area. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Report seems to suggest that several other new parliaments want to be affiliated to the IPU. These are parliaments such as those of Gambia, Montenegro and Faroe Island. It is interesting to see that these requests are receiving support. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if I may specifically refer to the donor support that Kenya, as a country, gets, I would like the Government to look very carefully at whatever support we get. In fact, one wonders whether we should not change from the use of donor support completely. One wonders who the donor is. If you take a country like Kenya, where we have many companies from abroad, they repatriate billions of Kenya shillings annually. If you take an example, the repatriation to the United Kingdom (UK), it is more than Kshs10 billion. All this money is made from businesses here in Kenya. Then, you look at what Kenya gets as donor assistance; it is Kshs1 billion. Really, the question becomes; \"who is assisting who?\" Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in my view, we are supporting the donor economies by so much that we should even change the term \"donor\". We should find a better term. I know we have talked about development partners. Yes, but to what extent? To what extent are we 452 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 5, 2007 development partners in the opposite direction? This should be an issue of concern, not only to Kenya, but all developing countries. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I notice here that the President of the World Bank has been talking to the IPU. He talked about global challenges to development in the whole world. This is a subject that is of great concern to most countries, including developing country such as Kenya. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the question which the Bank needs to be asking itself is: \"To what extend should the bank tie the hands of developing countries in their development effort through requirements which make it impossible for the developing countries to move ahead. \"If I may give an example, a country like Kenya is given limitation as to the kind of funds it can borrow. Kenya cannot borrow from any source, funds which attract more than 1.75 per cent interest and funds which do not offer 35 per cent grant element and the remaining base of 1.75 per cent. This means that even if Kenya was to get a loan at 1.75 per cent, a complete loan over a period with a grace period and everything else, we cannot borrow because there is no 35 per cent grant element. If, for instance, we want to develop a duty-free zone, say in Mombasa, and we are able to get money, even at 2 per cent interest, that project will be able to repay itself without any difficulty at all. But under the current World Bank regulations we cannot borrow that kind of money. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, these are some of the strings the Bank needs to look at and weigh if they really want the developing countries to develop. Another area where our hands are tied is, according to the United Nations (UN), we have to achieve certain targets by the year 2015. These targets include free education, equality of sexes, adequate medical facilities throughout the country and so on. But the same Bank will tie you down and tell you that, you cannot spend more than this or that percentage of your Budget on salaries because that is a wage, and you can also not appoint health workers to provide the essential medical services and other essential employees just because there is a limitation. You have to get a percentage of your Gross Domestic Product (GDP) going to salaries and nothing more than that. When you have a country like Kenya, where development had stalled for many years, GDP is of necessity, very low. Now, to tie recruitment of teachers, nurses and other essential personnel to the GDP is very limiting and does not make sense. On one hand, they say provide free primary or secondary education and get literacy level above a certain percentage but on the other hand, do not employ teachers. They tell us to offer good health services but on the other hand they say we should not employ nurses. Those are some of the limitations that we need to look at as we deal with a body like the World Bank which is supposed to be helping us to develop but it is really holding us back. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have already mentioned the problems of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and why we may not achieve some of them. I know that the conference discussed co-operation between parliaments and the UN particularly, in promoting world peace and in promoting the fight against terrorism. The point I want to make clear, is that even in a country like Kenya, we seem to be addressing the question of fighting against terrorism wrongly. We seem to be giving the impression that it is only one group of people; a section of Kenyans, who belong to one religious group who are prone to terrorism. I think that is unfortunate because the minute you bring in division between Kenyans on the basis of religion, we are entering a very dangerous area. I would rather we look at Kenyans who commit mistakes as Kenyans irrespective of their religions. Kenyans of Christian descent are being killed every day by the police because they are criminals. So, I believe that we should look at people for what they are and for the mistakes they commit and not on the basis of what religion they belong to. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me round up my comments by saying that the UN by and large is doing a very good job but when we begin to use the UN to promote world peace and the fight against terrorism and the achievement of better security worldwide, one wonders what we April 5, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 453 need to do to some of the big powers; the ones who are really causing problems around the world. Some of them go and invade independent countries under the pretext that those countries have weapons of mass destruction. They cause more trouble in those countries and also cause more dissatisfaction amongst the inhabitants. In fact, Iraq is a living example of what external interference in the affairs of a country can lead to. The question which this poses is whether the UN should not be changed in such a way that the clause which enables a few countries to make decisions without the rest of the world is amended and invite more members who can assist in decision-making so that a few countries do not have the power of veto and cannot interfere in the affairs of other countries with impunity. I think we need to find out whether the UN cannot be asked to drop the requirements for veto all together, so that decisions of the UN are taken on the basis of all the countries represented therein. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}