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"id": 228498,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/228498/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Mwakwere",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Transport",
"speaker": {
"id": 189,
"legal_name": "Chirau Ali Mwakwere",
"slug": "chirau-mwakwere"
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"content": " Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. First and foremost, I would like to congratulate His Excellency the President for the Speech which put on record the achievements of this Government not only over the last one year, but over the last four years. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is important to know that jobs are quantified. Some people's notion of a job is when one gets a salary at the end of the month. Their notion of a job is to be employed by company X in Nairobi, Mombasa, Mumias or wherever. One should ask oneself what the objective of a job is. For our youth, it is to get a livelihood. It is to earn revenue so that they can sustain their livelihoods and those of their young families and make their lives better in the process. In that context, whatever effort has been made to ensure that young people generate income through their own initiatives and not necessarily to wait for a letter of appointment is, indeed, a move that can be quantified as creation of jobs. That is exactly what it is. In fact, that is how it is even in countries that have developed beyond ourselves. For as long as an environment that can enable young people generate income has been created, you can go ahead and quantify that as creation of jobs. In that context, yes, this Government has generated more than 500,000 jobs, in any given year, as it promised before coming to power. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Kenyans have to wake up to the challenge of generating more and more income. This income has to grow. So far, our income has grown beyond 6 per cent as was projected in the President's Speech. However, we can do better than that. The only unfortunate thing here is that we tend to be extremely traditional. Every Kenya will struggle to get a piece of land. Yes, it is important to have land, but it is not elastic. We tend to think that we can only generate wealth in the traditional ways. You will find people applying for tenders, but only one company will win. You will then see them go for alternative means of generating income and sometimes they end up committing crimes, for example, robbing the people who have worked honestly to generate income for themselves and hence, improve the economy of this country. There is one area where Kenya is lagging behind tremendously. We only think of Kenya as a land mass. However, we have, along the ocean, more than 300 miles. From Lamu to Vanga, we have 200 nautical miles that go into the Indian Ocean. People from neighbouring countries sail into our waters, harvest fish, process it and, probably, sell it back to Kenya, without our knowledge. We, as a country, have noted that we make the least use of our territorial waters. That is a challenge to Kenyans. The Somalis; with all their problems, are making use of their territorial waters. They own marine vehicles. They do a lot of fishing. They export goods from one part of their country to another. They are making a fortune. They are improving their economy. Our other neighbour, Tanzania, is also making use of her portion of the Indian Ocean. They have boats that sail from one port to another, transporting people and goods. There are more fishermen owning boats. The story is the same all around the African Continent. If you go to South Africa, it is even doing more than us. They are, probably generating as much wealth for their country from the ocean as they do from land. Kenyans have got to wake up to the reality that wealth can be generated from their waters. The interesting thing here is that we do not need a title deed to own a piece of the ocean. It is open to every Kenyan. You will not cross into somebody's land or water area, neither will you be charged for trespassing or squatting. All we need to do is to be greater entrepreneurs and make use of the ocean. It is not only fish that is in the ocean, but there are also minerals. Many countries make use of their waters for leisure. Leisure boats sailing from Lamu to Vanga or Mombasa to Wasini, and April 3, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 309 other activities will definitely attract tourists. Some tourists will, probably travel from their countries just to come for a boat ride and the lake activities. There are boat rides in the oceans of countries like Seychelles and Mauritius. We need to wake up to that challenge. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also need to wake up even to the challenge that wealth can be generated from the skies. We seem to be looking down at the hard land. We seem only to see what we are stepping on. However, there is also wealth in the skies. This country is taken as one of the best developed in the Continent of Africa. But when we look at the gap between ourselves and South Africa, and a few other countries, we observe that we have per capita, fewer light aircrafts than South Africa. Kenyans have less than 300 registered small aircraft. That is a very small number. We may say that they are very expensive, but we have not talked to our bankers. Let us go and talk to them, so that we may fly, not only in Kenya for tourist activities, but even ourselves as Members of Parliament. We are too busy to wait for scheduled aircraft. It is possible for us to do so. We tend to think that certain activities are beyond our capabilities. However, we shy away from our bankers and just wait for our meagre salaries thinking that it will assist us in getting into economic activities to improve our lifestyle. Neighbouring countries like Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania recognise that Kenya is the hub of flights in the sub-region. If we owned our own small aircraft, or people took the challenge, we would, probably lease fewer from South Africa. We are currently leasing as many as we own from South Africa. We are paying dearly and losing a lot of foreign currency. We, as Kenyans, need to take the challenge ourselves and, in the process, improve our economy tremendously. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is one point I want to comment on; the problem of dishonesty in the way we live as Kenyans, generally. There is a tendency to misinform at all levels. Tomorrow, I will give a Ministerial Statement on the causes of accidents, but I could touch on a small element of it. There is a tendency in Kenya to point fingers at the wrong person, may be to amuse oneself or to achieve another objective. For example, newspapers would like to sell more copies by misinforming the public. I hope they will not write something bad on me for no good reason because this is the truth. When we have accidents on the roads and people die, the first question they ask is: Where is Mr. Mwakwere? Then they say, the Minister is sleeping on the job. Actually, the people writing are the ones who are sleeping on the job. They do not know their own law. They do not know the Traffic Act. They do not know what is around them. They do not read, but go by hearsay. In the process, they misinform the public. When we ask them what are the causes of accidents, they will tell us, it is human error, nature of the road and unserviceable vehicles. The Ministry of Transport only regulates. It does not fall into any of those realms which contribute to causes of accidents. I will make a Ministerial Statement and I hope they will understand. I believe they will all be here tomorrow afternoon. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}