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{
    "id": 228924,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/228924/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 198,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Ali",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for recognising me. There are people who are complaining about it, but they will have their time. I wish to contribute on the President's Speech. A lot has been said. However, I would like to be specific on some issues. There are Members of the opposition who have said that if they were in the Government, they would introduce free secondary education. Some Members of the Government are now saying that they will implement the same. I would like to say that we should not do things because people have said they will do them. Let us do things because they will be helpful to this country. Our students in this country have suffered for a long time because of the so called 8-4-4 system of education which came from nowhere. Now, we have the Free Primary Education (FPE) Programme. In some areas, children are suffering because of the programme. The number of pupils in a class has increased tremendously and somehow, things are trickling back to what they were. Let us not, due to politics, do things in this country just because we want to get votes. Let the Government do what it has to. However, if we have to implement things because of politics, that is a sad issue. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to talk about the issue of roads. I come from the northern part of this country which has nothing that can be called a road. Recently, we were promised that 20 kilometres of a road will tarmacked; that is 20 kilometres out of thousands of kilometres of the road. Some people would say that is a good start. I say the same too and would like to say thank you for that. However, we need more kilometres of that road to be tarmacked. If you were to travel from Nairobi to a centre called Bute in the middle of nowhere on the Ethiopian border, you would cover 1,500 kilometres. Everything has to start from somewhere. I am informed that the President is in Saudi Arabia looking for funds. I hope that something good will come out of that trip. Even if he does not get any funds from there, the Government should look for funds to tarmack even 100 kilometres of that road, something that people can see. Some children in North Eastern Province have never seen how a tarmacked road looks like. This is an election year and many things are being said and done. Many of our people are suffering. A lot of Money is being collected. We are being told that it has been tabled, but it has not trickled down to some parts of this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of electricity, His Excellency the President said that from Independence in 1963 to the year 2002, only Kshs6.5 billion was used for the Rural Electrification Programme (REP). He further said that from 2002 to date, this Government has used Kshs7 billion. That is a big improvement. But where has that money been used? Some people in some parts of this country do not know what electricity is. They do not have electricity in their homes. Out of close to 20 constituencies in northern Kenya, only one constituency was given a generator recently. I am addressing this issue to the Assistant Minister for Energy, Mr. Kiunjuri. If 190 constituencies are benefiting from the REP, how come that the only 20 remaining constituencies are from northern Kenya? That is very unfortunate! It is unfair and a form of segregation. That is something that this Government needs to look into!"
}