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{
"id": 229684,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/229684/?format=api",
"text_counter": 114,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Machage",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Health",
"speaker": {
"id": 179,
"legal_name": "Wilfred Gisuka Machage",
"slug": "wilfred-machage"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, indeed, the President's Speech was embellishing, splendid and to the point. He did elucidate the gains that this country has achieved in the last four years since he took over leadership. He did also show the weak areas that need to be addressed. It was a statesman's Speech. His main attention was on a few places that I am going to highlight. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, he did talk about education and the gains that have been made with the free primary education. It is true that every process has its own shortfalls. It is true there has been an over-enrolment of children that might not have been planned for, but he said that these will be addressed with the improving of the economy. However, affirmative action should be addressed, especially when it comes to the issue of training teachers among the under- privileged communities. It is a big irony that all areas in Kenya have to be considered using the same parameters in deciding on who is standing for what, when there is no equitable distribution of resources in terms of teachers and other facilities in our schools. We expect students in the whole country to attain a mean grade of C+ for them to quality for P1 teachers training, when those from privileged communities or Provinces have that advantage of attaining that grade, vis-a-vis those who come from areas that are poorly endowed. I would suggest to the Minister for Education that, as the President addresses this issue, affirmative action should be taken, to a little bit lower the pass mark for all the Form Four graduates from less privileged areas, who have to be trained as P1 teachers, for instance, Kuria, Trans Mara, Pokot and Turkana Districts. Let the pass mark be C, so that there can be equatable distribution of resources in this aspect. It is true that the Government has endeavoured to improve the welfare of teachers. In the same way, we would expect reciprocation from these professionals; devotion to their time and quality of teaching to our children. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the President did address the gains in the agriculture and livestock industries. I would like to add that these Ministries should address more issues, especially in deciding which crops have to be grown in the different areas of this country. We are still using research that was done by the colonialists, that only identified certain areas for certain crops. We have forgotten some crops that are coming up, such as vanilla, which is giving a lot of foreign exchange to countries like Uganda, for example. I believe this country can benefit in terms of economic growth. Sunflower cultivation is still not well-addressed, especially so, in areas that 40 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 21, 2007 have to be weaned out of tobacco farming for obvious reasons. We also need to expand our tea zones and so on. It is important that we fully address our potential, as a country, in terms of food or cash crop production. This also goes to addressing our industry in terms of processing. We should desist from the habit of exporting raw materials to be processed elsewhere and then importing the end products. Sometime back, instant coffee was processed in Britain after buying our crop. We then used to buy it back into the country. The hides and skins industry is one area that is poorly addressed, especially so, because livestock development is not being addressed. We also have meat factories coming up. We should harness all the profits for this country. I would not want to agree with one hon. Member who said that the establishment of 20 beaches at the lake is insignificant. The truth is that there was none. We can only say: Let there be more. One step in the right direction is worth praising. Let us have even more advanced industries that not only take our fish, but also process it at that level, and consume everything including bones which should not go to waste. That is a direction that we should actually encourage. It is true that a lot needs to be done in terms of security. But it is the responsibility of every hon. Member of Parliament to address this issue in his or her own constituency. Insecurity has hit every part of this country. I would really support the idea of actually introducing capital punishment for those people who are found to keep firearms without any licences. That should be done as quickly as possible. Kuria District, for example, has suffered because of legal arming of people from the neighbouring districts. We have suffered a lot. The same applies to other marginalised communities living in Mt. Elgon District, Pokot, Turkana District and other areas. It is important to also appreciate the gains we have achieved in terms of health. I will emphasize this because nobody looks at it as a way of trickling of the gains in the economic development to the people. When we improve medical facilities, availability of drugs and equipment, what we are actually doing is to improve the quality of the lives of the people of this country and, therefore, increasing the useful man hours that more often than not, go to waste. This is a direct gain. We have to endeavour to increase the life expectancy of Kenyans, which is at its lowest level now; that is, 44 years. Therefore, I thank the Government for not only addressing certain drugs, but also giving free Anti-Retroviral drugs to those poor people whose health has been so much jeopardised that they cannot produce anything by themselves. The Government is giving them this opportunity. People talk of political districts. Which district in this country was not created politically? At Independence, how were the districts created? They were all tribal districts. Look at their names. Which Parliament ever sat with the colonial powers to decide which group had to be given a district? It is only those communities that bowed and knelt before the colonial masters that were given the opportunity to have districts, at the expense of other Kenyans. Then, we find Members of Parliament coming up and urging that the beneficiaries of the current distribution of districts, are irrelevant. Let them be ashamed! It is the only way that this country can distribute its resources to its people. It is a way of bringing the Government closer to the people. It does not matter whether it has been done before the legislation or not because, after all, this is the practice. Even in law, if the practice has been to rule on a certain sort of behaviour of the Judge, it is accepted. It is normal. So, I find nothing wrong with this. This also applies to the Constituencies. I am the only Member of Parliament representing the Kuria community in this country. If I am denied a chance to speak, it means denying Kuria people, 100 per cent. It is a shame that I am the only person from the Kuria community in this Parliament. We do not even have any worker from my community in this Parliament; not even a sweeper. Mr. Ojaamong, suffers from the same problem. Are we not people? The President said that the number of Judges will be increased to 200. It is a shame that some people are urging that March 21, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 41 only particular people have to be appointed Judges, regardless of their tribal affiliations. They say this because they know that they were privileged. When you take a random sampling of who will qualify, they are most likely to be in that bench, and other communities will be marginalised forever. There must be affirmative action when making decisions relating to the distribution of the national cake. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}