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"id": 229071,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/229071/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Too",
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"speaker": {
"id": 199,
"legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute on this Motion. From the onset, I rise to support the President's Speech. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, allow me to join my colleagues who have already contributed by thanking the Chair for recognising the good work done by hon. Members. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is sad that the President mentioned agriculture in passing and yet, this is a very important sector of our economy. This country is endowed with good climatic conditions. For example, coffee, sugar-cane and tea are grown in western Kenya. Therefore, it is not understandable why we continue to import sugar and yet, we have a lot of land in which sugar-cane can be grown in this country. The Government should give farmers incentives so that they can grow sufficient sugar-cane. We know the situation will be worse when sugar from COMESA countries will be imported into the country next year. We, as a country, are very lucky to have the potential land to grow tea, coffee, sugar-cane and pyrethrum. Therefore, this is an area where the Government should put in a lot of efforts. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is a fact that for any economy to grow, there must be security. In this country, we have two parallel forces; the regular police and the adminstration police. I think this is where the problem of insecurity originates. I believe that these two forces are not properly co-ordinated and harmonised. At the end of the day, I believe we should have a properly structured and co-ordinated police force. We find that these two forces are put together, for example, at road blocks. Are they there to spy on each other? If the Government were to merge the two forces, we would have one properly structured police force. I also believe that there is total breakdown in collection of criminal and security intelligence in this country. For example, in Mt. Elgon region, people are butchered and others are fleeing the area because of insecurity. I believe that before this happened, there was some intelligence information on what was likely to occur. We have the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) charged with that purpose. We pass a lot of money during budget for that service. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we know that dealing with insecurity is a complex issue. This is particularly so with organised crimes like robberies, car-jackings and drug trafficking. However, with a proper system of collection of intelligence information, I think this matter should be brought under control. We know for a fact, that so long as human beings are in this world, crimes will continue to be committed. However, crime should be brought under control. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to touch on education. We appreciate the fact that the NARC Government has brought in free primary education. As a result, the number of children enroled in schools has gone up tremendously. However, that positive action by the Government is being negated by the fact that there are no teachers. Therefore, as mentioned by March 28, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 221 other hon. Members, there is no learning in the institutions. The quality of education has gone down tremendously. I, therefore, want to urge the Government to consider increasing the number of teachers in primary schools to improve the quality of education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to touch on Rural Electrification Programme (REP). I must give a pat on the back to the NARC Government. This is an area the Government has done a good job. I would say there has been equitable distribution of this programme. In my constituency, I have about five on-going projects. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund is a good move in the right direction. However, there are a lot of teething problems. The administration and disbursement of this fund is a big problem. In fact, in my constituency, up to now, we have not made any headway. I would urge the Government to seriously consider going to the ground to carry out training programmes on how the fund should be disbursed and administered. The youth should be informed on how to access this fund and the kind of enterprises to undertake. Similarly, I would like to touch on the Women Enterprise Development Fund which the President mentioned in his Speech. I think this is over-due. However, better late than never. We should move very fast in this area. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, going back to the issue of security which I alluded to, I think we have had some sporadic clashes all over the country. We keep running up and down to deal with these situations. There is need for the relevant organs of the Government to sit down and discuss the issue in a critical manner. This is because no investor will invest in an insecure environment. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}