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"speaker_name": "Mr. Musyoka",
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"legal_name": "Gideon Musyoka Ndambuki",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for affording me this opportunity to join many of my colleagues who have spoken before me on the very important matter of His Excellency the President's Address to this august House, it being the last such function under the current Parliament. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is clear that a lot of what the President had to say was geared towards winning him a second term. It is so perfectly understood, including, perhaps, winning some votes as well for whichever party His Excellency the President would eventually choose as the vehicle that will enable him to seek the second term. I want to appreciate the fact that Dr. Kibunguchy, who I suspect was talking about me or, indeed, some other friends, because I looked around and I do not think there are many on this side who have been talking about a devolved Government. I want to convince him, because he is a very understanding hon. Member. First of all, the issue of devolution was exhaustively discussed at the Bomas of Kenya during the Constitutional Review Conference. If, indeed, he followed that process, the only issue was: How many regions are we going to end up with? We had a rough estimate of about 10 to 17 regions, and I am sure Dr. Kibunguchy will certainly belong to one such region. But, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, more importantly, it is clear to me that time has, indeed, come when Kenyans with one accord, will stand up to say: \"There should be equitable distribution of national resources\". There should also be equitable distribution of what I call mamlaka . I remember that we had to spend at least six months in Naivasha discussing between the Sudanese Government on the one hand and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) on the other, where they had to really haggle, for days on end, until they were able to come to a conclusion on the matter of wealth sharing. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, even as we applaud the current trend in economic development which, by the way, unless it actually hits a minimum of 7 to 8 per cent, we cannot as a country, begin to realize growth in terms of job opportunities. But, of course, if we take over on this side, which is what we intend to do, the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be at a minimum of 10 per cent. It is happening next door in Tanzania, and we cannot really understand why we would be applauding 6 per cent GDP Growth. As I have said elsewhere, the whole world is moving in that direction. The only country in the world experiencing negative economic growth at the moment is Zimbabwe, for reasons which are clearly elaborated in the media on a daily basis and other countries that are coming from war situations, like Somalia. But beyond that, even as this Government chest-thumps itself for a 6 per cent GDP growth, it is important to realize that when we took over; some of us have a stake in this growth because I am still the NARC Member of Parliament for Mwingi North. His Excellency the President is the NARC Member of Parliament for Othaya. So, we had this shared vision of what it is that we 318 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 3, 2007 wanted to do to jump-start this economy. Clearly, this having happened, we intend to continue with this trend and be able to triple the effects and, indeed, the achievements that we are beginning to see now. Of course, at that time, we did not anticipate that, whereas in 2002 a kilo of sugar cost Kshs40, today it would cost Kshs100 or Kshs120. This tends to erode the benefit that would otherwise be associated with free primary education. Talking about free primary education, I also want to point out one fact, because Dr. Kibunguchy comes from Western Province. When I recently visited his part of the country, I realised that the pupil-teacher ratio was 1:120. Clearly, we did not envision that kind of a situation. The allowable ratio is 1:40 and a maximum ratio of 1:45. I am happy that the President did refer or, indeed, his Minister said that they are going to recruit 40,000 teachers. I still think that this Government should be bold enough to employ all the trained teachers that have gone through our teacher-training colleges in order to mitigate the effects of over-population in our schools. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, you and I share some boundaries in Mwingi, and I am sure you appreciate that in Mwingi, for instance, we are understaffed by approximately 1,000 teachers. So, talking of 40,000 teachers and I am seeing my friend, hon. H.M. Mohamed, who is my senior in this House, I think he agrees that even in Garissa, they are facing serious under-staffing problems. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me address the problem of devolution. Looking at the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) allocation of 2.5 per cent today, can we imagine what would happen if every district--- In my view, it does not make any sense any more to create extra districts, because the districts as we knew them, have lost a lot of their significance. Because of the CDF arrangement, my proposal would be as follows: The Government should be bold enough and say that every constituency shall become a district. That will make sense from the point of view of planning so that we all know that every hon. Member has his own district. This will be an acceptable measure of devolution. Then, we should up the CDF contribution to a minimum of at least 15 per cent. That way, we will be able to get an equitable distribution of national wealth being felt at the grassroots level. Otherwise, what is happening is that, the so-called \"economic growth\" is just at the top. Those with the capacity to buy as much as they can at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) are laughing all the way to their banks. But the majority of our people who live in the rural areas are still very poor. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, 30th March, 2007, was the final day for the registration of voters for what is clearly a very historic year. My plea would be that, at least, the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) should extend the voter registration exercise to, perhaps, June. Even as we speak, many Kenyans stand disenfranchised on account of the fact that they were not able to access the necessary registration forms. Indeed, the forms were brought to Nairobi when the applicants were waiting in their villages to receive their identity cards. So, there is clearly a lot of dissatisfaction with the way this Government has acted in this matter of registration of its own citizens. I would rather prefer that the Kshs1 billion that the President talked about was, in the first instance, used to ensure that all the eligible Kenyan youth get their identity cards, which will enable them to register as voters. That would have been proper empowerment. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I cannot understand the logic behind the President's calculation that, out of Kshs1 billion, Kshs790 million will have to be accessed through banking institutions. How many of our youth are able to give the necessary collateral or security in order to be able to secure this funding? The Kshs210 million which is shared all over the country ends up being absolutely peanuts, and I will not be surprised if the youth in this country simply get Kshs4,000 or Kshs3,000 that the respective groups would have applied for and treat themselves to a party and think that this is some good fortune! I recall that in the early 1990s, a similar effort was actually made by the former President, only that, that time it was through a Harambee effort. What people ended up doing was getting this money and not really making any serious investment decisions. April 3, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 319 Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to applaud the management of Mumias Sugar Company. I wonder whether the Minister for Agriculture or, indeed, the Minister for Trade and Industry are aware that, come March, 2008, the safeguard measures that are a form of protection to the cane farmers, mainly in Western and Nyanza Provinces will be coming to an end. The effect of this is that there is going to be a disaster in the sugar growing areas of our country. I would like to see the Government taking this matter seriously, and begin to open discussion with COMESA, so that there will be an extension of the safeguard measures, otherwise we are going to see a massive collapse of an industry that is actually the source of the livelihood of so many of our people in Western Province and, as I said, in parts of Nyanza Province as well as Rift Valley Province. This is a matter which should be taken as seriously as is possible. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have just come from Isiolo, which neighbours my good friend's, hon. H.M. Mohammed, constituency. Since Rift Valley fever situation has improved, the Government should lift the ban on livestock trade. Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir."
}