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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me give a few comments on the President's Speech. I am happy for the first time that His Excellency the President did not talk about zero- tolerance to corruption. For the last few years that I have been in this House, all the speeches of the President contain the phrase, \"that we are committed to zero-tolerance to corruption\". For the first time, the President did us proud by omitting something that has never been achieved in this country, and which his Government has been unable to achieve. Therefore, I was particularly very happy. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is one issue that the President must address personally. The issue of insecurity in this country raises a lot of concern to many of us. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am very disappointed with our Departmental Committee on Administration, National Security and Local Authorities because it has done very little to assist the President, the Minister of State for Administration and National Security and this country to curb insecurity. My main concern are the on-going clashes in the Mt. Elgon region. As a country, we cannot pretend that by cordoning off that area, we will solve the security problem in that area. Sometimes, this country expects too much from ourselves. We appoint Ministers whose capacities cannot match the responsibilities they are given. It will be expecting too much to believe that the Minister in charge of security has new ideas to deal with issues of insecurity in this country. Those are people whose tactics are outdated. You cannot equate the Provincial Administration with the issue of security every time. Those are old tactics that were used during the colonial era. Today, we require new tactics to address insecurity. Crime has become very complex and we require people who are innovative and have new ideas. We need people who can go to the ground and ensure that insecurity is sorted out. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when there was a security threat from neighbouring Somalia, Kenya mobilised all its resources to ensure that there was no threat to this country. Every day, we are told that people are being killed in Mt. Elgon, but very little is being done by the Government. We have been told that 28 schools have been closed down due to insecurity. But nobody in this Government seems to care. Nobody seems to give that problem the attention that it requires. This is a shame to us, as a country. That is why my blame lies squarely with the Departmental Committee on Administration, National Security and Local Authorities. When hon. Mwenje was the Chairman of that Committee and there was a problem in Molo, resources were mobilised to enable the Members of that Committee to fly to Molo, asses the situation and find out how the problem could be sorted out. We have a Committee in this House that does not know its responsibilities! I do not know whether they want to go to workshops only, when Kenyans are losing lives every day. If you cannot manage a small Committee, there is no need for you to be in charge of that Committee. I think it is embarrassing and shameful. I think it is time for such people who cannot take care of our own people not to be given such responsibilities. If hon. Members cannot be allowed to go to that area, the Committee should be allowed to go to that area at anytime, assess the situation and establish the cause of the problem. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the President, in his Speech, praised the work of the 216 PARLIAENTARY DEBATES March 28, 2007 Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Public Investments Committee (PIC) and other watchdog committees of this House. But what the President failed to tell us is that his Government has failed to implement the recommendations of those watch dog committees year in, year out. It is always required that when a report of PAC or PIC has been adopted by this House, there should be a Treasury Memorandum. But since I joined this House, we have produced reports year in, year out, but we have never received a response from this Government. It, therefore, means that, as much as this Parliament has done its work in producing the reports that are required, the Government has failed to issue a report on the status of the implementation of those recommendations. We, therefore, request the President to go a notch higher and order the respective departments such as the Treasury, to ensure that the recommendations by the parliamentary watch dog committees are implemented. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the President, in his Speech, said that there is transparency in the way the Government conducts its activities. As much as I appreciate that it has moved a step further, this House has failed to pass the much need budget law. Without this House passing the law that will give us powers to scrutinise the Budget in advance, we will, forever, cry foul. When the Budget time comes in June, this same House will complain of failure by the Government to distribute resources equitably. There is no point for us to complain every year that resources have gone to the Mt. Kenya region and Ministers' constituencies when we have an opportunity, as a House, to pass a law that will give us power to scrutinise the Budget and ensure that resources are distributed equitably well in advance, before the Budget is published. By the time the Budget is published in this House, we will have no control over it. All we will have to do is to say \"yes\". We are enemies of our own selves. I would, therefore, urge hon. Members to support that Bill when it come before this House. We should pass it. Otherwise, there will be no need for us to waste time in this House and pretend that we are concerned by the way the resources have been distributed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the President also talked about giving 30 per cent of Public Service jobs to women. But he failed to appreciate that 10 per cent of the population of this country is made up of disabled persons. The other day, we had one disabled lady who came to attend a PAC meeting. She was unable to move upstairs. We had to physically carry her to our meeting room. It is a shame that even Parliament, which is supposed to be an example to other institutions, does not have facilities for the disabled. In the same breath, we want the President to ensure that 10 per cent of Public Service jobs are given to disabled persons. That is because for every 10 Kenyans, there is always one disabled person. We must never forget that very large population in our country. Many hon. Members have talked about the growth of our economy. The price of milk has risen to Kshs17. The price of a bag of maize has risen to Kshs1,200 to Kshs1,300. But people do not understand! At Independence, there was something called inflation. I appreciate the President when he talked about an underlying inflation of 5 per cent. We are not interested in the underlying inflation. The underlying inflation does not really affect us. What affects the common people is the overall inflation. That is the inflation of the prices of the various commodities in our markets. Therefore, for instance, at Independence, the price of maize could have been Kshs100. Now it is Kshs1,300. We would not have expected it to go lower. Therefore, when people come here and say the price of milk has gone up, what did they expect it to do? With inflation, the prices will always go up. Therefore, for you to come and tell us that the prices have improved without looking at other factors of inflation is hiding the truth from Kenyans. The cost of living in this country has sky- rocketed. We cannot hide behind the high prices, when we are spending all the money in buying the various commodities. We must be truthful and understand the basic tenets of economics. With those few remarks, I beg to support. March 28, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 217"
}