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"id": 229624,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Billow",
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"legal_name": "Billow Adan Kerrow",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to start by acknowledging the recognition by His Excellency the President of the number of very important Bills that have been passed by this House in the last four years. These Bills include the Public Officer Ethics Act, the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, the Privatisation Act, the Financial Management Act, the Public Procurement and 20 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 21, 2007 Disposal Act and the Sexual Offences Act, among others. All of them are very important laws. They are a milestone in the development of our laws. However, in spite of that, there is no major improvement in addressing the mischief, or the purpose, for which those laws were created by this House. I want to give examples. The aim of enacting the Public Officer Ethics Act and the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, for instance, was to fight corruption, which has been a problem in this country. In spite of those important legislations being in place, today, throughout the world, it is believed that the fight against corruption in Kenya has stagnated, and that there is no significant improvement in the war against corruption. If you look at privatisation, in spite of that law being in place, you still find that there are serious problems in privatisation, the latest being the issue of Safaricom Limited. If you come to the issue of procurement, there are still major loopholes through which money is being syphoned from public coffers. The Government is not getting value for its money because, sometimes, the competitive bidding requirement is not followed, so on and so forth. So, in spite of the fact that His Excellency the President recognised the efforts by this House to pass very important legislations, those who have been charged with the responsibility, in the Executive, of carrying out their duties in accordance with those laws, are not doing their work. These are the people who are letting down His Excellency the President. They sit on the Government side of this House. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to also commend the President for recognising the work carried out by the watchdog committees and other committees of this House. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is true that the watchdog committees, namely, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Public Investments Committee (PIC) and other Departmental Committees of this House have been very vibrant. They have been very alert and very current in handling issues. Quite a number of times, they have succeeded in nipping in the bud major corruption scandals that would have caused chaos in this country, including the infamous Anglo Leasing scandal, yet the Committees are lacking support from the Government. For example, this Government adopted the PAC Report on Anglo Leasing, and to date, in spite of the adoption, not a single action has been taken on the recommendations that have been made. There was a raft of recommendations and they have not been implemented. I agree with the President, but the implementation of those recommendations is still lacking. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to thank you, above all, for proposing amendments to the Standing Orders. If there is anything that we need in this House, it is more powers to deal with the Executive, so that we can get the Executive to be accountable to the people of Kenya, implement the things that they promise to implement, live by the laws that are made by this House and implement the recommendations of the various Committees of this House. This House is not taken seriously by the Government of the day. So, I commend the proposal by Mr. Speaker to amend the Standing Orders which will help us to be more effective in our activities. Let me touch on the issue of the economy. I want to agree with His Excellency the President that the economy has grown at the rate of 5.8 per cent to 6 per cent. That is remarkable given the way it was before this Government took over. However, I have to mention three things regarding the economy. First, that growth is not translating into the development of the wellbeing of Kenyans. In other words, the most fundamental thing that the economic growth should have addressed, is the issue of poverty. When this Government took over, it did away with the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper that was developed by the previous regime and came up with the Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth Creation. In that Strategy Paper blueprint, the Government promised to reduce poverty by 5 per cent in the five years that it will be in power. This has not been done. The latest statistics that are March 21, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 21 produced by the Government and other international groups show that the poverty index in this country still remains as it was in 2002. In fact, if anything, it might get worse. The reason is because some of the economic policies that have been developed are not those that are helping the poor to get better or to improve their livelihoods. Mr. Speaker, Sir, for example, the cost of living has gone up so much that an average Kenyan today is worse off than he was in 2002. This is based on the policies that are passed by this Government. For example, last year, the Minister for Finance passed in the Budget an increase in Fuel Levy of Kshs3.40. We raised concerns here that, that increase is going to have a nominal effect on the prices of transportation, rent and food because everything is dependent on fuel. The Government never took that seriously. They were concerned about raising more money, so that people can be paid more. The consequence is that today, Kenyans are living in a worse situation than before. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the third most important thing about the economy is the issue of inequality, which His Excellency did not mention again. As long as there is inequality in this country in incomes and resources allocation, we will never get out of the problems that we have. We will live in a city where one of the world's wealthiest and poorest people live. This is the same across this country. That inequality is largely due to the policies of the Government. For example, in resource allocation, whether manpower or financial resources which are allocated through the Budget, it is still as skewed as it has always been in the last 40 years. If you look at manpower, you will find that every senior appointment that is made by this Government is based on who is making the appointment. If a Minister comes from a region, he appoints somebody from his region. If he comes from a certain ethnic community, he appoints somebody from that ethnic community. To the extent that there is no fairness and equity in terms of how resources are being allocated, this country will remain as poor, as divided and it will never grow as expected. It is not enough for the Government to say that the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) and the Youth Development Fund have been introduced every time it speaks. Those things are not going to transform the lives of people. It is those wider policies of the Government and the resources that are important. Mr. Speaker, Sir, let me mention the issue of the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) areas. His Excellency mentioned in his Speech that Kshs12 billion was spent on ASAL areas. I must say that first we have to thank the Government for the number of districts that have been created, particularly in the ASAL areas. This will help because, at least, more resources will be allocated to those areas. I would also like to thank the Government for some of the efforts, particularly in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, which has done remarkably well in parts of the ASAL areas. But if you take North Eastern as an example, we are in a situation in which we have never been before. Today, 70 per cent of the population of that region is dependent on famine relief. They are allocated famine relief on a monthly basis. That is how they survive. This is because 70 per cent of their livelihood, which is livestock, was lost during the drought. The Government did not make any effort to compensate those people or to assist them in the recovery. To date, we are dependent on Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) who buy ten goats for us. No efforts are being made to improve irrigation or the livelihoods of the people in that area. Unless that is addressed, we will remain poor. The issue of infrastructure; roads particularly, and the social services which the poor depend on, like health and education, should be addressed. Schools in North Eastern Province still perform the worst in the whole country in spite of four years' pledge, every year here, by the Ministry to improve education in the area. I think there is need for more improvement strategies in the ASAL areas in spite of the money. 22 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 21, 2007 With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}