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"id": 229113,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. C. Kilonzo",
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"id": 46,
"legal_name": "Charles Mutavi Kilonzo",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I wish to support the President's Speech. First, I would like to thank the Speaker for having recognised the role that is played by hon. Members in the development of this country. Out there, everybody has been saying that the hon. Members do not work. The reason why hon. Members \"sleep\" in the House is because they come here when they are tired. During the day, hon. Members are busy attending to their constituents and at night, they are busy in Harambees. So, they are bound to be tired. We actually work over-time. Let me go back to the President's Speech. Much has been said, but I expected to hear more. Let me start with the issue of free primary education. This is a good idea, but primary education is free and diluted. I, being an hon. Member of the Departmental Committee on Education, Research and Technology, have had the opportunity to visit quite a number of schools, for example, the Mumias Township Primary School, which has three classes and each class has over 200 pupils. On Monday this week, we were in Mombasa and we visited Vanga Primary School which has classes of over 150 pupils. The free primary education is a good idea, but what is the Government doing to ensure that it is giving quality free primary education? How many primary school teachers are there? You will find a school with about 500 pupils with only five teachers. Most of the time, these teachers are idle. Some of the pupils learn under trees. We expect to get a firm commitment from the Government. The other day, we heard the Minister for Education saying that the Government is going to employ 40,000 teachers. I would want to believe that, that was not a roadside decision. The Government should go ahead and, indeed, employ these teachers. A big percentage should be employed in primary schools. The other thing is the issue of secondary education. Most of our people in this country cannot afford to pay for secondary education. It is very disappointing to hear a Minister saying that the Government cannot afford to provide free secondary education while our neighbour, Uganda, has introduced free secondary education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am not a great mathematician, but under the former KANU regime, we were collecting about Kshs178 billion. Under the NARC regime, we are collecting Kshs350 billion plus. So, in simple arithmetic, if we have 1 million students, each student should get Kshs8,000 and that amounts to Kshs8 billion. So, when the Minister for Education says that it is not possible to have free secondary education, I cannot understand. Where does the money go to? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we do not have to pay for the boarders, but we should pay for the day scholars. If a student wants to be a boarder, he or she should pay the boarding fees. We cannot say that we cannot afford Kshs8 billion. We can afford Kshs8 billion and we can also afford to employ 40,000 teachers. This is simple arithmetic. It is a matter of putting our priorities right. In the short-term, there is the issue of bursaries. You will recall that the Minister for Finance had abolished bursaries. When you give Kshs800 million for bursaries for the entire country, indeed, you are not helping us. As an urgent measure, the Government should consider bringing in the Supplementary Budget, something to the tune of Kshs4 billion or Kshs5 billion to cater for bursaries for our students. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) is not a brain-child of the Government. It is a brain-child of Members of Parliament. If we put more money in the CDF, we will create more jobs for our people. We will also take services to our people. Therefore, you know very well that the Constituencies Development Fund (Amendment) Bill cannot come to Parliament without a clause on increasing the CDF. So, I would have expected the 234 PARLIAENTARY DEBATES March 28, 2007 President to say: \"I have recognised the role played by CDF. Therefore, we will see whether we can increase the CDF to about 5 per cent.\" If we get 5 per cent, we will not want CDF to be increased again for very many years. Why am I stressing that? We have not seen any development undertaken with funds that go to the central Government. But whatever little that is given to the CDF is felt very fast. It has a big impact. On the issue of food reserve, the Government has increased it from 3 million bags to 4 million bags. But the additional funds allocated for that purpose amount to Kshs1.8 billion. Today, in my constituency, because there is bumper harvest, a kilo of maize is going for Kshs6. But in another two months, the same kilo of maize will cost Kshs20. That is how it is. So, I would have expected more funds to be given to that particular sector. The entire Eastern Province has been given Kshs100 million. That amount will only buy about 1,000 bags. That is enough for only two to three farmers; it is peanuts! We want to see the National Cereals and Produce Board enabled to play a more central role. It should buy the farmers produce when it is ready and sell it back to them during the dry spell. The middle-men are, indeed, exploiting our farmers. Our people are poor because the Government has made them poor. The Minister for Agriculture - and I have nothing against him, whenever funds are allocated to purchase maize, he concentrates on Rift Valley Province only. What about Eastern Province? We also have a bumper harvest. We also have farmers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of security, I wish to say that I am shocked. I am against crime. But we must fight crime using the existing laws. When a Minister, who is an hon. Member of Parliament, gives an order to the police to shoot and kill on sight, what are we saying? It only means one telephone call from a malicious person to say that your car has been stolen and the person is shot. The police will not ask any questions. The order is to shoot on sight. You will be shot. What happens in such scenario? There was a case of a United States International University (USIU) student who was shot on sight, and that was it! Are those the laws we should enact as proposed by the Minister of State for Administration and National Security, Mr. Michuki? It is wrong. He has said that on record and repeated that matter on very many occasions. The policemen will become the judges. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have a more serious external insecurity. We have a war in Somalia. We have wars in Sudan and Uganda. We also have wars in Rwanda and Burundi. What is shocking is that we have kept our forces under-equipped. Our Air Force has only five operational jet fighters. In 1982, the Kenya Air Force had about 26 jet fighters. Today, we have only four such jet fighters. Word is that we are shopping for a second-hand one. We have read in the media that the Kenya Air Force is shopping for second-hand jet fighters from Saudi Arabia or Jordan. What would happen if, one day, a mad neighbour decides to invade us? That is what happened in Somalia. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Navy cannot control the ocean. We have tourists coming to this country and somehow because of insecurity, they are avoiding our country. We should have a very strong Navy for purposes of ensuring protection of our interests. When we have an army of about 20,000 soldiers in an area surrounded by countries at war, we are not serious. We need to become a regional power. We say that at times of peace, we prepare for war and at times of war, we prepare for peace. So, this is the time of peace and let us ensure that we have a very strong security force and give it morale. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}