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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance to contribute to the Presidential Speech. From the outset I want to appreciate the contents of the Speech. I want to plead with the House and the Committee that is reviewing the Standing Orders that this House actually formulated to make laws. If something is good, you say it is fine. When you overpraise something, it does not make sense any more. It is not morally upright, given the time we spend in this House, to make laws and to contribute to debate. It is sufficient to have a day or two to thank the President for giving us something to think about. I think we are actually competing for time. It is not that when you speak too much about an item, then you make it good, if it was bad. I suggest that in the Standing Orders, we say \"thank you\" and \"fool stop\". That is when we will add value to the people who we represent. 180 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 28, 2007 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to touch on the issue of free primary education. We would like to thank the Government for doing what they have said they have done. It is critical to also evaluate what value we have got from this free primary education. We appreciate we have quantity, but zero quality. School children are actually clamped together, sitting on top of each other. Classrooms are filled with about 90 pupils with one teacher. That can never give us quality education. We can sentimentally say we have free primary education, but truly we are actually trying to push these school children to destruction and complacency that they have gone to school when, indeed, they are more illiterate than they would have been had they stayed at home. The Government, must of necessity address the issues of employing more teachers commensurate with the number of students so as to improve the quality of education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the President recognised the fact that the Government will set up a Women Enterprise Development Fund. There are too many things that are being done very late in the hour. One wonders whether we mean what we say or we do what we say. The President has realised in the last year of his term that women are really disadvantaged. They are the ones who fetch water, look after the children and do all the household work. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, unfortunately, despite the pronouncement that the Government will give two-thirds of the jobs to women, Mrs. Mwatela was shown the door as soon as the President made this announcement. It appears that the President is saying one thing and doing the other, which actually negates the essence of having the President make statements. If the President's handlers who are seated in the Front Bench, do not agree with the President before he goes out to make statements which will embarrass him, they should advise him not to make those statements, because I believe most of them are the ones who make input in the Presidential Speech. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to appreciate the fact that the Chief Whip is listening attentively because I know he has the ear of the President. If the President says something you do not want him to say, please remove that paragraph out of his speech, otherwise you will keep on embarrassing the Head of State when you are just watching and clapping like emperor worshippers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are bragging that we have tripled our revenue base. Kenyan people are heavily taxed. You cannot justify that with the growth of the economy. The growth of the economy cannot actually sustain the amount of--- The Government and the Kenya Revenue Authority are \"sitting\" on people's money for refunds to reflect a target achievement. I think it is important we look back at that to ensure that we spread the tax base to reduce the tax rate because Kenya has the highest tax rate. Even as we are taxed, we require a new Constitution to give us a fair distribution of resources. I am saying that with a lot of pain. Even today, 43 years after Independence, we are saying: \"We shall provide services when funds are available!\" I am saying that as an example. A Minister in the Government, yesterday bragged here that his two divisions have got power supply. This is a Minister who joined the Government through the back door. It is a shameful thing, but he was bragging and chest-thumping that he has got power in his divisions. Does that mean that when you join the Government is when you get development? Kenyans from both sides of the divide pay taxes. A minister of Government was chest-thumping here on the Floor of the House that he has got power---"
}