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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to second this Motion, and first to say how proud we were, as a country, to host the 114th IPU Conference in May, 2006. To get to that point of hosting the Conference, of course, it took time. Those of us who had participated in IPU Conferences before vied for it and were elected as a host for this major Conference. Not every country that makes a request is able to host the Conference. It is due to the political stability and the multi-party democracy that we enjoy in this country that we were able, at the request of our Speaker, to be accorded that opportunity to host the IPU Conference. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, before hosting it, we made preparations. I would like to thank the Speaker and this august House for having accorded me the singular honour to be the 392 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 4, 2007 chairman of the organising committee, which hosted this very important IPU Conference. Amongst members of my committee, apart from their participation in the Conference, were hon. Mugo, hon. Kembi-Gitura, hon. Dr. Manduku, hon. Prof. Oniang'o, the Clerk of the National Assembly and others from various Ministries. We spent three years preparing for this very important Conference. I have to say that we were able to benefit from the efforts of various experts from various Ministries, notably, the Office of the President for security and organisation, the Office of the Vice-President and Ministry of Home Affairs, the Treasury, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Immigration and Registration of Persons and the Ministry of Local Government. Everybody worked very hard to ensure that we put every arrangement in place to host this very important Conference. Some of us have attended similar Conferences elsewhere. I have personally attended three of these conferences outside this country, apart from the Geneva one. I want to say that I became very proud of being a Kenyan after we hosted this conference. The standards that we maintained were the highest. After the participants left this country, we received accolades from not only the President of the IPU and its Secretary-General, but also from a number of delegates, who were full of praise for the manner in which Kenya hosted the IPU Conference last year. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to pay tribute to the various committees that assisted me to organise that conference. I want, first and foremost, to pay tribute to His Excellency the President. That is because to get the resources to host a conference of that nature calls for vast resources. At some point, it required that our Speaker and the organising committee consult His Excellency the President. Indeed, he appreciated the importance of hosting the IPU Conference here. He was able to lock in the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the President and hence, the availability of the financial resources to ensure that, first and foremost, the conference facility - the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) -was renovated to the standard that was required by the IPU. Unfortunately, the KICC had been run down. We were required to bring it up from scratch. We not only renovated the conference facilities, but also the restaurants and other common facilities that are very important. We want to appreciate the role that His Excellency the President played in ensuring that there was availability of resources. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we want to associate ourselves with the efforts that were put in by the management of KICC. Some of the facilities were not done on time. I have an example of the sitting arrangements. But the management of KICC was able to come up with alternatives. They even borrowed from other institutions. They made sure that our guests were accommodated as comfortably as possible. At the end of it all, we can now proudly say that we have a conference facility that is worth marketing. I am glad that the management of KICC has now taken conference tourism to be very important. They are now marketing KICC as a facility that we can be proud of. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also want to thank the various Ministries. The leader of the delegation has thanked the police for the efficient manner in which their security was taken care of. When you host a large number of dignitaries of that magnitude--- The number of delegates numbering 1,066 did not include the accompanying persons. The accompanying persons were quite a large number. We had nearly 600 accompanying persons, who included spouses and friends of the delegates. The accompanying persons were able to enjoy our hospitality. We were able to arrange for them visits and enjoy areas of tourism and other attractions like cultural artefacts, museums and so on. To ensure the security of all those people - the delegates as well as accompanying persons - is no mean task. It is a mark of our efficiency. The period of the conference was only six days, but many delegates were staying for longer periods, some even for two weeks! To maintain their security was no mean task. I want to pay tribute, on my behalf and April 4, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 393 that of the committee, to our police for the way they maintained peace and security in our country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the hotel industry was up to scratch. Of course, they were doing business. But, at the same time, we had to work very closely with them to ensure that they gave our friends and visitors the best that Kenya can offer. In addition to the facilities that the delegates enjoyed in hotels and so on, we had a number of receptions, apart from the cultural party at the Carnivore. The Speaker and the Government hosted separate receptions. The heads of the delegations were able to visit State House for a reception hosted by His Excellency the President. They all went away with a very good impression of our country. So, we want to pay tribute to the hotel industry for the way they looked after our guests. Our guests were all very proud and happy. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we want to pay tribute to the transporters. Those are the people who made sure that our guests were moved from the airport to their various hotels. They were also able to transport our guests for the excursions. In addition to the serious business in the conference centre, we organised excursions for our guests. We ensured that they were ferried comfortably. We want to pay tribute to those who provided transport services. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, that conference was a milestone in our history. Many of our guests who went away promised to come back. Indeed, some have since come back. Some have maintained contact with us. Whenever they have come, they have told us they want to attest to the hospitality of Kenyans. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, apart from all those arrangements, I want to enjoin my colleagues in reading through this Report. The copies are available. That will help them to take into account the resolutions that were passed. The items on small arms, which have dogged this country and our neighbours, cannot be over-emphasised. Parliamentarians across the globe can influence their countries. There is proliferation of small arms in this region because of our porus borders, particularly the northern and eastern borders of this country. Those arms have wrecked havoc in this country. The small arms fall into the wrong hands. That is why our security is compromised. We hope that the Parliamentarians who were here--- We urged them to speak with their governments to ensure that they pass the necessary legislation, so that the proliferation of small arms does not come to our countries and wreck havoc on us. It is a matter that is of concern to us. It is a matter that we would like to continue to ventilate and speak about. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the role of women in society cannot be gain-said. We, in this country, are now talking of ensuring that our womenfolk are given an opportunity in all public appointments to the tune of 30 per cent. That is a laudable political statement. However, I hope that we can follow that through with the necessary legislation to make it possible for our womenfolk to come into this House in much more larger numbers than we have at present. Once they are here, they can participate effectively in the committees and in appointments to various public offices within Parliament and the Government. That will make the role of women recognised and appreciated. That is of principal importance to us. I hope that the necessary legislation will be brought to this House to put what we passed in the conference into law. That will give credence to affirmative action. It is critically important to do so. We discussed an emergency situation of hunger in Africa. We are the only continent that continues to beg for food. In the 1940s and 1950s, the Indian Sub-continent used to go around the world with a begging bowl. But they took positive steps to ensure that they did not depend on rain- fed agriculture. They started small scale irrigation schemes. Those schemes are found in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries. Those countries are now self-sufficient in food. It is only in the African Continent that hunger continues to plague us. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, all the speakers on the item of emergency item, did urge that as long as we still have it as a major 394 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 4, 2007 problem, developed countries should come to our aid. Efforts should not be put so much on giving food aid to Africa, but on ensuring that it can become self-sufficient in the production of its own food requirements. So, I hope that those resolutions pertaining to those items in this Report be ventilated and taken seriously by Parliamentarians in this august House. It was my pride to have chaired that organising committee and to have participated in the deliberations of the 114th IPU Conference. I felt proud as a Kenyan. With those few remarks, I beg to second."
}