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"id": 241327,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. J. Koech",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for East African Community",
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"legal_name": "John Kipsang Koech",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. First, I would like to thank my colleague, Dr. Kituyi, for his budget proposal. I also want to congratulate him for coming up with very clear policies on trade and industrial promotion in this country. I also want to thank him for his negotiational abilities in different international organisations for the benefit of this country. I know this fact because I was with him in many fora to negotiate the establishment of the East African Community. Most of these policies and negotiations have helped to strengthen trade between us and other African countries. It has also increased trade volume by our people. In our country, population is growing fast, and we have many well-trained young people. It is good to note that Kenyans are good in taking up training opportunities. You will find that many of our young people want to do good university degree courses. Our youth are very good and enterprising. The only way in which we will be able to employ them, and make use of their potential, is by expanding our trade and manufacturing industries. Many people in this country fight for employment opportunities in the Government sector. But the Government employs less than a million people, yet everybody in this country wants to get a job in the Government sector. Sometimes people join the Government, so that they can get jobs for their own people. This is fighting for something which is not possible. We should expand our manufacturing industries and increase our trade opportunities. In this way, we will create gainful employment for our people. This is because adults in this country, who are looking for employment, are over 15 million. The majority of them will not be able to get jobs, unless we invest in manufacturing industries. We must think seriously about this issue. I am happy that the industrial sector has created more employment opportunities in the last few years. I am happy to hear that about 250 people were employed by manufacturing industries. I hope that we will increase employment opportunities by giving incentives to local entrepreneurs to start informal business. We should encourage our small traders. I remember that there used to be some courses for small-scale business entrepreneurs. Such courses should be offered on a weekly basis, so that our traders do not have to go very far for such training. Such courses will allow small- scale entrepreneurs to have entrepreneurial skills and know how to improve their businesses. In that way, we will be able to create employment for many people. When the NARC Government pledged to create 500,000 jobs per year, people engaged in a lot of criticism. They asked: \"Where are the 500,000 jobs?\" Kenyans were made to think that the Government was to offer the 500,000 job opportunities. Honestly, the Government cannot give 500,000 jobs. This is because there are only about 1000 jobs available in the Government. So, how can it give 500,000 jobs? The number of Form Four leavers every year is about 300,000. The number of people that can be employed by the Government is a tiny proportion of this figure. So, unless we come up with very serious job creation policies, we will not be able to create enough employment for our people. I have found out that in the East African Community, business is expanding very fast. Our business people are moving into the neighbouring countries to sell their produce. Kenya has, indeed, become a big beneficiary of the East African Community. These will, of course, generate further employment opportunities for our people. However, there is one thing that is worrying. When we talk about success in the industrial sector, export business and so on, whose success is it? The indigenous African still has a lot of problems. Therefore, it is high time we came up with very clear policies that will help develop the indigenous people. These are people 2314 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 25, 2006 who are willing to invest here and they will not take their capital outside this country. For a long time, many people have been making a lot of money in this country. In fact, when they get profit, they repatriate the money to their home countries because they have connections all over the world. So, instead of Kenyans benefiting from economic growth, it is other countries which are doing so. We should come out deliberately to address this issue about indigenous entrepreneurs. We need to provide our young people with jobs to do. One of our colleagues talked of local authorities. We should have co-ordination between the local authorities and the Ministry of Trade and Industry. There are so many areas in our country that are potential for good business. When I travel from Nakuru to Kericho, I normally pass near a market centre called Chepseon. A lot of business goes on here. However, there are no plans to ensure that the people doing trade in this market carry out their business in a smooth way. The potential there for business is very good. We need to tap such potential and promote it so that the indigenous people can also benefit. Sometime back, the Kenya Government started Kenya Industrial Estates. These estates had turned out to be centres of excellence for quite a good number of our people, especially the indigenous Africans. I know that in Nakuru, our former Speaker, the late hon. Kiprono had established a very nice business of manufacturing milk cans. When the business closed down, the dairy industry was also affected. What I see in the local areas after the revival of the dairy industry is that farmers have a lot of milk, but the type of cans they use to store the milk are pathetic. I do not think that the plastic cans that they use are good. However, the cans that used to be manufactured in Nakuru in the past were very good. There were so many other good things that were manufactured in the industrial estates. So, I hope that the Minister for Trade and Industry will endeavour to revive the industrial estates and people availed some capital with low interest rates so that they can develop. Unless we do it deliberately, the black man with nywele ngumu will always have a lot of problems. We need to be serious on this issue of developing industrial estates. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am happy with the way the Minister and his officers are working. They have ensured that the investment climate is very good and that has attracted foreign investors. However, what about ourselves? How are we going to develop this country? The majority of graduates who are going to leave universities are not assured of getting jobs! They come to see us so many times. They tell us that we are in Government and so we should be able to give them jobs. People are now going to look at the Government with a view of it providing them with jobs. We should be able to create jobs through the incentives that we give people in terms of financing. By creating a conducive environment for investment we should enable them to put their entrepreneurial skills into use. I have seen a good number of traders who are doing good work. Sometimes you will not realise that there are Kenyans who are selling goods to Canada. Some people are also selling products to Germany and Britain and this is because of the network that they have established. How I wish that such a network involved more Africans. I believe that we can manage. For instance, we could use our commercial attaches in the export business. The Ministry of Trade and Industry should also work hand in hand with my Ministry so that we can assist the people of this country, especially the young people."
}