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{
    "id": 241349,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/241349/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 195,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Odoyo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 340,
        "legal_name": "Peter Ochieng Odoyo",
        "slug": "peter-odoyo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute after His Excellency the Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs. Some of the issues I wish to raise concerns the good work being done by this Ministry. While we appraise the Minister, I wish to put this into perspective: He has a budget of Kshs2 billion out of a possible Kshs400 billion for the Government of Kenya. In effect, the importance of this Ministry is not truly reflected in the allocation it has received. It has received 0.5 per cent of the national budget of Kenya. While we talk about the virtues of the Minister, in reality, what can he do with 0.5 per cent of the national budget? The 0.5 per cent is Kshs2 billion which is composed of Kshs1.6 billion for the Recurrent Expenditure and Kshs400 million for the Development Expenditure. In effect, one can say that almost 80 per cent of the money will be going into Recurrent Expenditure and only 20 per cent to Development Expenditure. When we speak of Korea and Kenya having been at par economically we forget that, in reality, at one point, Korea decided that the bulk of its money would go into development and the July 25, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2323 lesser of it to recurrent expenditure. Today, this Ministry and the rest of the Government spend more than 75 per cent of its money on recurrent expenditure and less than 25 per cent on development. So, if we do not invest in the productive sectors such as agriculture, trade and tourism, how do we expect to improve our infrastructure like roads and generate revenue to meet our basic requirements like health and education? I believe that this Ministry has, indeed, a competent team, right from the Minister, PS and the heads of departments. However, we have to be sincere in agreeing that the capacity which has been availed to them in terms of resources is totally inadequate to have any effect. I speak with confidence because I was once a district head officer in the same Ministry and I worked in Kitui. I believe, Mr. Deputy Speaker, at that time, you were in Nyeri and you kept in touch with me. You used to call me and we would speak when you were the PC there. So, I wish to state that while things change, they also tend to remain the same. The Vote Heads that were there 30 years ago are remain the same while, today, we have international issues to deal with such as the WTO, AGOA, COMESA and the East African Community. I have not seen anywhere, in the Vote Heads, an indication that this Ministry will be responding to the international issues through correct Vote Heads. The Minister may very well be criss-crossing the world, but that may be in his own personal capacity rather in an institutional capacity for the well-being of the Ministry."
}