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"id": 228508,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. L. Maitha",
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"id": 249,
"legal_name": "Lucas Baya Mweni Maitha",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to also comment on the Presidential Speech, which was delivered to this House. In a Speech of this nature, especially on an election year, we expect His Excellency to enumerate what he perceives as his successes during his tenure. In his Speech, the President mentioned a few areas that he perceives to be his successes. For example, the education sector which has been talked about by the hon. Members. There is no doubt that everybody celebrates the free primary education with all its teething problems. However, the Government still needs to invest more in the education sector. For example, on the issue of Early Childhood Education (ECD), there is a big problem. Who manages nursery schools in this country? We know that local authorities manage nursery schools to some extent, but a lot of ECD is still in private hands. For example, unqualified Standard Eight drop-outs just erect bandas, put up a few makutis and start teaching children. The Government should take over the management of the early childhood education because foundation matters in the whole run. If the Government has succeeded in offering free primary education, it should start from the ECD part, so that the foundation is proper as the child develops April 3, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 321 towards secondary school. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, today, we have thousands and thousands of Kenyans who have graduated from our universities. Kenya is one of the most expensive countries as far as university education is concerned. The Parallel Degree Programmes are very expensive. We have thousands of teachers who are aspiring to advance themselves in the universities, but the charges are prohibitive. There are so many other workers who have saved a fortune and want to further their education in universities and colleges. Why are we locking out our Kenyans in the institutions of higher learning? This has caused a capital flight. People are now moving to India because university education has become cheaper there than it is in our country. We are losing millions and millions of dollars because people are looking for cheap education elsewhere. What is the problem? Why can the Government not subsidise university education and allow those who want to advance their education to do so? This is one area that we want the Government to look into. We would appreciate if something is done, so that our workers can study and continue to work because many of them are bread-winners and have a lot of obligations to fulfil. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in his Speech, the President said that since his Government came to power, it has invested Kshs8 billion in Coast Province. This is a lot of money and I want to equate it to the Kshs7.2 billion which was allocated to the CDF in the 2003 Financial Year. If you look at what that amount of money did nationally, you will find out that it is a lot. I wonder where this Kshs8 billion was invested in the Coast Province because I have not seen what it has done. Unless the President was talking about part of the northern corridor investment in Maji ya Chumvi. In that case, we appreciate. The northern corridor is a national project, which, although it is going to affect the lives our people, we cannot immediately relate it to the changes in the lives of the local people. We would have appreciated if this money would have been used to rehabilitate the Kenya Cashewnuts Factory, which could have directly benefited the farmers. We would have also appreciated if this money could have been used to rehabilitate the Mariakani Milk Scheme, because this could have directly benefited the farmers. We would have further appreciated if this money could have been used to rehabilitate the Bixa Factory, because this could have benefited the bixa farmers directly. We are telling the Government to re-focus its priorities in areas which are going to impact immediately on the lives of the people. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is where the controversy comes in. If somebody stands up and says that the economy of our country has grown, people will never accept this as long as the areas that directly affect their lives have never changed. I would like to urge the Government to re-focus its priorities and target priority areas that affect the poor people, the farmers and those people who sweat every day, so that their lives can improve. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to commend the Government because there has been a lot of infrastructural development going on, especially on the area of roads. The Government came up with a list of black-listed contractors; the so-called, \"cowboy contractors\". Today, we still see the same people being given jobs. I want to give an example of the Malindi-Mombasa Road in the Kilifi-Malindi Section, where the contract was awarded in November last year. The contractor was seen for only one week. He put some little bit of dust on the road and he has never been on site any more. We are told that Kshs1.8 billion has been given out for this road. When I went to the Minister, he was bold enough to tell me that he was sorry because that contractor is a crook. Why do you award contracts to crooks? I would like to urge the Government to stand by its word. If it has black-listed some contractors, they should not be awarded contracts. These contractors do not have the capacity to perform and if you force them to perform, they will do shoddy jobs and this is not what Kenyans 322 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 3, 2007 want. I urge the Government to do something on that issue. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we want the Government to look into the land issue. Even if the economy grows at the rate of 20 per cent or anything else grows at any rate, land issues are key to our development. Today, the clashes in Mt. Elgon are based on land issues. Tempers are now cooling in Molo, but the issue has been land. Today, in Coast Province, temperatures are high due to land issues. I had the privilege of visiting Tanzania recently with regard to the on-going debate on the East African Federation, our brothers and cousins are saying that Kenyans have too many land issues and they will \"export\" them to them. The Government needs to do something about the land issues. There are no two ways about it. You can postpone it, but you cannot avoid it. The Government should formulate a land policy to reduce social tensions. If it does that, all the other things will follow suit. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to touch on an issue which has earned this Government some credit. Recently, we saw the rewriting of Kenya's history. We have seen the history of people who were almost forgotten such as the late Dedan Kimathi and many other heroes being revived. That way, Kenyans can celebrate their heroes and heroines who brought freedom to this country. The Government spent a good fortune to erect a statue of our hero. But on that issue, we must get a clarification from the Government. Even after erecting statues, many dependants of those former heroes are living in abject poverty. If you saw the television footage of the house where the wife of the late Dedan Kimathi lives, it is a pity. If you visit the family of the late Ronald Ngala today, it is a great pity. So, as much we want to rewrite our history, the Government should show some appreciation to those families whose kith and kin paid heavily for the freedom that we are enjoying today. It should not end by erecting statues all over our towns. We should look into the welfare of those families by rehabilitating them. That is because they will always live with the concept that, if their men were alive, they could have lived a better life. So, we want to remind the Government to continue on that line and do something about those families. Otherwise, we will be a laughing stock by erecting statues of our heroes, but when the cameras zoom on their homes, we will see dilapidated buildings and families living in abject poverty. That erodes what we are trying to do for our heroes. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to touch on agriculture. I believe the Government has done a lot to improve food security in this country. But there is something about the Water Act, which I want the Government to look into."
}