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"id": 229176,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Salat",
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"speaker": {
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"legal_name": "Nick Kiptoo Korir Salat",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to also contribute to the Presidential Speech, during this last Session of the Ninth Parliament. Most of the speakers who have spoken before me have dwelt at length on the Speech by the President. However, I will only touch on those issues that I feel should be commented on; those that I feel are personal to me and my constituents. The President touched on the issue of education where we have an increased enrolment. We believe that truly, there has been an enrolment because of the free primary education. However, I hope and believe that when the Minister said that the Government is going to employ an additional 40,000 teachers, this is going to be a welcome move from the Ministry. It will also be welcome in the sense that with the increase of enrolment in primary schools, the student-teacher ratio should be addressed. This sector is the foundation for our nation building. When we start to inject the necessary resources to ensure that we have enough teachers for our children, we will have a nation that can cater for them for years to come. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I would also like to touch on the issue of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, which, to me, again, is a good move. However, it is only good to the extent that we can see its results. So, for this particular fund, we expect that it is going to be distributed equally; and that we will have personel at every level. We should have them at the grassroots level to ensure that all the youth are given a chance to access this particular fund. We have in this country, some areas where we have youth who are more educated and some who have no knowledge of the existence of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund. So, we hope that the March 27, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 117 relevant Ministry will ensure that all our youth have equal access to this Fund. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the President also talked about the Rural Electrification Programme (REP). As many hon. Members will agree with me, this particular programme is now in effect in most of our constituencies, including mine. However, I only hope that there are no constituencies that are getting the bulk of the benefits of this programme more than others. The President said in the last four years, Kshs7 billion has been allocated for the REP. I would want to believe that the Kshs7 billion was evenly distributed. We all want to benefit from the REP. The President also talked about the fiscal and monetary policy of his Government. On this front, we have noticed some improvement, especially on the way banks are now treating their clients. In the recent past, banks never used to have a human face. They treated clients like second- class citizens. However, nowadays they go out to seek clients and offer services to them. So, I commend the Government for improving on the accessibility of funds. Nowadays, banks advertise along our major highways about the facilities that they offer to clients. Mr. Speaker, Sir, with regard to revenue collection, it is true that it has gone up. We hope that in the next Budget, the revenue collected will be distributed equally. It is common to find that during Budget Day, when we come here to listen to the Minister for Finance read the Budget Speech, some areas are allocated more resources than others. So, in the next Budget, we expect that the revenue collected will benefit everybody in the country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, with regard to agriculture, the President talked about the Kshs1.8 billion which has been given to maize farmers in the country. That amount of money is only good to farmers to the extent that it is paid on time. There could be money, but there is a lot of laxity on the part of the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) in terms of letting farmers take their produce to the Board's silos and paying them on time. One other thing that is very close to my heart is the issue of milk production. Yes, it is true that the Government has allocated Kshs600 million to this sub-sector. However, I would like to point out a case in Sotik where farmers who take their milk to the New Kenya Co-operative Creameries are turned away with their milk to give room to farmers to deliver their milk to the factory for processing."
}