HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 228861,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/228861/?format=api",
"text_counter": 135,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Bahari",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 156,
"legal_name": "Abdul Bahari Ali Jillo",
"slug": "bahari-ali-jillo"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the President's Address on the state of the nation. I want to congratulate the Government for improved economic growth. This perhaps forms the basis for further improvement in this country. However, I want to mention that economic growth and development are two different matters. They are never the same. I do not want anybody to lose focus of the fact that growth and development are two different issues. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at this country, it is nothing new. In the mid 1970s, the late J.M. Kariuki was reported to have said in this House that this is a country of ten millionaires and ten million beggars. This is basically what he was referring to at that time that as much as this economy has grown, certainly the distribution of wealth in this country is grossly skewed towards one side. There are gross inequalities. It is important that this Government comes up with very clear and radical policies. I am happy a number of the senior Ministers are here. I am sure the Minister for Planning and National Development, Mr. Obwocha, is seriously listening to what I am saying. We need to put in place serious radical measures to address the gross inequalities in this country, which have been there for the last 44 years. There are parts of this country that are mostly referred to as the less potential areas. These are the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL). I know it has been repeated here time and again that these areas have been neglected. It is not that these areas have no potential, they have never been given priority in exploiting that potential. A country like Namibia is literally arid, but it has done very well, particularly in the livestock sector. It exports 13,000 metric tonnes of meat to Europe every year. That economy is seriously independent because of the deliberate effort by the 172 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 28, 2007 Government to ensure that there is proper investment. The resources of that economy are utilised to the benefit of the people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when shall our Government take a deliberate effort to improve the ASAL areas? I want the word \"deliberate\" to be seriously noted here. The Government must go out of its way to put in place the initial capital and infrastructure that is required to turn round an economy. In 2003, I remember meeting His Excellency the President with a host of other hon. Members from northern Kenya. We listed, as a priority, the main trunk roads; Isiolo-Moyale, Isiolo-Wajir and Garissa-Mandera as the key investment priorities. However, nothing has been done so far to improve those roads. If we can construct the Isiolo-Moyale Road, with the kind of population that we have in Ethiopia and the interest that country has in the Mombasa Port, we will forget the issue of famine relief. All the money that we are spending on providing famine relief food to famine-stricken areas, if invested deliberately through Government allocation, will lead to the generation of resources for this country. Once people are not able to feed themselves, then they lack self esteem. As a result, their participation in the economy is constrained. That is a very basic thing that any Government should have been able to do in 44 years. The majority of the people from these areas have been supporting the Government since Independence. I think we need more serious and radical action. I must appreciate that many tokens have been given. But we need more radical measures to be put in place to bring the people from North Eastern Province on board. This plea has been repeated since the mid 1970s. Even now we are still talking about it, because of lack of goodwill on the part of those who are in positions. We can do better; there is no doubt. I recall His Excellency the Presidency saying that the watchdog committees of this House have done an excellent job. But I must say that the recommendations of those committees have not been seriously implemented, especially by the Ministers. If that was done, the growth of the economy of this country could even double. A number of memoranda are issued by different Ministries, but nobody follows them up when it comes to implementation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to talk about the education sector. Many areas in North Eastern Province continue to get marginalised when it comes to the provision of educational facilities. I must thank the Ministry of Education, because it wants to know how it has fared. That is a good approach. All other Ministries must follow suit. I have seen a questionnaire from the Ministry of Education that is asking the stakeholders to say what they think about it. We lost 90 per cent of our livestock during the last drought. The Ministry of Education should have considered offering free secondary education to children from the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs), who lost the backbone of their economy. This should have been done a long time ago. The parents are really suffering and many children are out of school. The bursary funds which we were given are very little. They can do very little. Half of the time the children are out of school and, therefore, they cannot even cover the syllabus. Consequently, they perform poorly. This is a vicious circle which must be broken at a certain point, to the benefit of the people. My recommendation is that free secondary school education must be given as a matter of priority to children from the ASALs, as we explore the possibility of providing it to the rest of the country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we all know that insecurity has been a big problem in the ASALs. Many people have blamed it on the terrain and many other reasons. As much as there are difficulties in those areas, there had been a very serious problem of insecurity in North Eastern Province for quite a while, until one Provincial Commissioner (PC) was posted there. Without the Government spending much, he decided to put in place measures that eliminated what was considered to be impossible. So, we have to watch out on the administration of the police in those areas, particularly, in Marsabit. Why should people continue to be butchered? We know the friends that we lost in this House because of those issues. The same issues continue unabated. I want to March 28, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 173 blame the police force, because it is not taking effective action. It has allowed loopholes in these areas. This is a very serious matter. If we see insecurity persisting, then we have to ask what the administration is doing. If you ask the people in those areas, nobody wants to get involved in insecurity. But it continues unabated, because the first issues have never been addressed conclusively. Therefore, people have to go for revenge. This revenge breeds another revenge, and it is continuous. The police must come in and stop this insecurity at one point. Because small incidents are never tackled, they continue breeding. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to talk about the issue of audits in the country. His Excellency the President talked about the effectiveness of watchdog committees. The audits of local authorities have not been looked at for a number of years. It is the high time, now that we are reviewing the Standing Orders of this House, that we formed a separate committee to look at audit reports of local authorities, so that they are made more accountable. The Ministry concerned has been talking of bringing a financial management Bill to Parliament, on local authorities. However, nothing has been done so far. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}