HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 235652,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/235652/?format=api",
"text_counter": 241,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Eng. Nyamunga",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 341,
"legal_name": "Eric Opon Nyamunga",
"slug": "eric-nyamunga"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this important Motion. First of all, I would like to join my colleagues in congratulating Dr. Ojiambo for being mindful of the less fortunate members of our society by introducing this Motion. The Motion is asking the House to grant leave to introduce a Community Social Enterprise Bill in order to provide entrepreneurial skills and financial support for these socially excluded groups. We are talking about a group which constitutes a very big percentage of the Kenyan population. This group has numerical strength and they are many compared to the fortunate members of the society. If you consider the women under this group, they are playing a very crucial role and taking care of the children and the youth of the Kenyan society. Unfortunately, that contribution is not even taken into account when we are doing economic analysis of this country. Whatever they do such as taking care of the children and going to the farms to work is not taken into account, it is ignored. These people live largely in the rural areas of this country. It is, therefore, very important that we find ways and means of empowering them, so that whatever they do everyday contributes largely to the economic growth of this country. We cannot ignore them. If we were to put in place measures that will enable them to find gainful employment, we all can imagine the rate at which this economy would grow. For now, unfortunately, they are not empowered. Most of them wake up everyday and idle around because of lack of empowerment. If we empower them, they will contribute positively to the economic growth of this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, although this Bill will target both the male and female Kenyans in this group, I am very happy that the main target group will be the women. Sometimes when men make money, they do not direct it to the family. The immediate members of the family do not benefit from this money. However, if we empower our women, we can be sure that the immediate members of the family will benefit. We will improve the living standards of the children in our society. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when we talk about the Jua Kali sector, when someone starts as a Jua Kali artisan one is not meant to stay at that level. The business is meant to grow until it becomes a medium-scale industry. The only way for us to make such programmes possible is if we get some level of funding that does not require security such as title deeds. We need to put in place the laws that will enable the Jua Kali artisans to improve from the level at which they have started until they grow. Maybe they may team up at some stage and go into medium-scale industries and even large-scale industries having started from a very small level. It is necessary that we put in place ways and means of making that growth possible. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are many Kenyans who wake up everyday and they wonder what they will do for the day in order to earn a living. The Bible is very clear on this, that we must eat from our sweat. When we put this law in place, it will enable this large percentage of Kenyans to earn from their sweat. Sometimes we are hard-working, but we are not facilitated to earn from our sweat. Most people end up as thieves or robbers because they do not have a way of earning from their sweat. I am very happy that when the House does grant leave, we will bring a Bill that will address those issues and make every Kenyan, when he or she wakes up, have a way of November 8, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3483 earning a living from his or her sweat. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are all very excited about the Youth Fund. However, it has not started working because the necessary laws are not in place to make it work. However, you can be sure the youth are waiting for this money. When this Motion becomes a Bill, it will have a major training component in it. At the moment, majority of this target group is not aware of how to use this money, and even how to pay back. We must inculcate a culture of paying for the loans that are given. At the moment, majority of us think that when this money is given, we are not supposed to pay back. We must be in a position to have it as a culture that even if there is nothing required as a guarantee, say a title deed, we must be committed to pay back the money that we borrow so that others can also access credit. We must stop being selfish so that when I am loaned money, I must work day and night to return the money so that other people can also get a chance to access credit. Financial institutions are not in the business of selling people's property. Even if you secure a loan using your furniture and so on, you must have it in your head that you must pay back the money. I am sure that the training that they are going to get will push that fact in their heads. As a person, make it a personal commitment to refund the money and stop looking for ways of evading payment. If you do that, somebody else will miss out. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have a dream. I am looking forward to the days when the young people of today will one day, 20 or 30 years from now, say: \"The manufacturing industry you are admiring now started as a Jua Kali place somewhere in Gikomba, graduated into something bigger in Industrial Area and it is now a big enterprise manufacturing so many things.\" Kenya's industrialisation will have grown from what is small to medium and then to large scale. Even if it means teaming up, I believe that the training that they will get will include showing them how to work together. This will surely enable them grow from small-scale to large-scale. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those remarks, I beg to support this Motion."
}