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"id": 229685,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/229685/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Mirugi",
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"speaker": {
"id": 367,
"legal_name": "Kariuki Mirugi",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to the Presidential Speech which he gave yesterday. I want to commend most of the economic gains that this Government has achieved. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as other hon. Members mentioned, the trickle-down effect is taking a while. But I believe that the process has already started. That is what is most important. The other issue that I want to support, is the fact that the President mentioned that the Government is going to start a women enterprise fund. This will go a long way in fighting poverty amongst our people. Women are the most enterprising part of our society. Women are the highest number of small-scale business owners in this country besides the youth, and we need to empower them by starting an enterprise fund. I also want to appreciate the Government's commitment that 30 per cent of all Civil Service jobs go to women. I want to urge the relevant Government Ministries to enact the necessary legislation so that whoever takes over this Government after the General Elections does not change this policy direction. I also want to urge all hon. Members that, when the Political Parties Bill is laid on the Table of this House, they should support the proposal to have a 30 per cent representation in this House, through nominations by various political parties to be strictly women. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to thank His Excellency, the President, and the Government for the commitment in creating new districts. I want to say, on the onset that in my district, Nakuru, we are the ones who have suffered greatly in this country because of the historical injustices in the creation of districts. That is very wrong because it means that resources are not equitably distributed and Government services are not accessible to my people like other people in this country. I also want to support His Excellency the President's decision to support the creation of new constituencies. Nakuru District has also been left behind in the development of this country through various development committees, be it the Constituencies Development Fund or bursaries. We have not had any new constituencies in Nakuru since Independence, while other districts have been able to get new constituencies. It is only fair that we should have more constituencies so that we can have equitable distribution of wealth in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if I talk about bursaries in Nakuru Town Constituency, where we have over 120,000 voters, it is very wrong when some hon. Members come to this House with more than 100,000 votes while others come with less than 10,000 votes. Where is the fairness in the representation in this House and in the various development projects? I also want to urge the Government to look into the possibility of increasing the bursary allocation. Last Financial Year, my constituency had over 3,000 applications, and the money that we got was enough for only 582 children. So, you can see that we can barely meet half of the demand. But I am sure and confident that with the creation of new constituencies, hopefully, we can also be able to help more children access the bursary. I also hope that the Government will look into the possibility of having free secondary education in the next couple of years. I know that we can achieve that as a country with good management. As we have seen with the free primary education, we can also achieve free secondary education in, say, about two to three years. I also want to support the proposal that we expand the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB). There are so many children, others that we are funding through the bursary that have not 42 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 21, 2007 been able to raise tuition fees for colleges, and we do not want to make this a luxury. It should be a right for every Kenyan to access education, be it secondary education or higher education. It should be made a right for every Kenyan. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to urge that, in the agricultural sector, we have made high gains. Look at the coffee and tea sectors where we have had a lot of commendable work. But if you look at the pyrethrum sector, we have had problems. This Government needs to come out and sort out that problem. Parliament has already made a financial guarantee to jump- start the pyrethrum sector. I do not know why it is taking more than two years to revive that sector. Already, more than a half of the output of pyrethrum has gone down because of poor management. So, I want to urge the Ministries to act fast and revive this sector so that Kenyans and this country can be able to gain from the pyrethrum sector. I also want to urge the Government, through the Ministry of Co-operative Development and Marketing, to speed up the revival of the Kenya Farmers Association (KFA). I believe that this Parliament made a guarantee of Kshs2 billion. I do not know why it is taking more than one year to revive this sector. Farmers are suffering and I want to urge this Government to try and speed up the revival of that industry. I also want to support the increase in the number of judges from 60 to 200. Given that some of the proposals I have heard, among them that we need to complete election petitions within six months and the essential reforms that some of the hon. Members are requesting, I do not believe that it is possible if we cannot increase the number of judges. It is wrong for us to want the number of judges to be ethnicised and go by the districts. Those are the proposals I cannot support because they are not good for this country. I do not think we should put the Judiciary in the path of ethnicity because we will not have justice for all Kenyans. We should not politicize the appointment of judges in this country. It is a good thing; it is long awaited that we need to take off this backlog of cases, some of which have taken more than ten years to resolve. I believe that with the increase in the number of judges, we can be able to sort out some of these problems. I also support the direct election of mayors and county council chairmen. I support the proposal to give them executive powers, especially mayors. It will not be right that mayors will still act as juniors compared to town clerks, who take directives from the Ministries. I also want to urge the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to try and speed up their work because for now, the Controller and Auditor-General, who is answerable to the PAC, has not been able to audit the accounts, for example, of the Nakuru Municipal Council for the last four years. He does not have any records. I believe that the PAC is, right now, dealing with accounts that are already four or five years old. How can you be able to hold the Government of the day responsible if you are dealing with accounts that are for the previous regime? So, some of these issues that have to do with corruption, for example, the Municipal Council of Nakuru has over Kshs400 million to provide services this Financial Year alone, but they have not been able to show anything for that amount of money. If we have to end corruption in this country, we have to hold our institutions accountable. In this regard, the PAC has failed to ensure that these councils are accountable for the money that is passed through the Ministry of Local Government in this House and the money that they collect from the general public. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to support the proposal to have capital punishment for people who bear firearms illegally. That will go a long way towards fighting crime in this country. Hon. Members should also take the initiative in fighting crime by using the Constituencies Development Committees (CDCs) to set up police posts and police stations. I believe that we can come to this House and haggle about equipment and vehicles for police officers, but as hon. Members, we should, as a first step, help in fighting crime by setting up those police posts and police stations. It is my wish and proposal that in the war against corruption in this country, we also have capital punishment for people who are convicted of corruption-related cases. March 21, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 43 That will go a long way towards providing a mechanism for letting our people know that the Government or this country does not appreciate people who steal from public coffers. I think that will go a long way towards fighting corruption. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Government has done a lot besides the few activities that I have mentioned, and I want to urge hon. Members that, the constitutional review issue that the President mentioned, we should approach it soberly and also to let them know that this House is not immune to criticism."
}