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"speaker_name": "Mr. J. Nyagah",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I stand to support the request by the Ministry of State for Administration and National Security that we grant it about Kshs29 billion for purposes of Provincial Administration, Police, Administration Police (AP), Government Printer and the outfit that fights drug abuse. This Ministry is one of the most important Ministries in this country. It represents the Presidency itself. When it makes a mistake and goes down, it brings down the entire institution of the Presidency and, indeed, our country. So, it is important that as we discuss this Vote, the officials who run this Ministry be fully aware of the responsibility that they carry. They carry Kenya with them! It is, therefore, important as we approach the general election, that the Ministry starts speaking in one language. If the Commissioner of Police, the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Director and Harambee House speak in different languages, it sends confusing messages to Kenyans and, indeed, the world. So, I hope that as we approach general election next year, activities in this Ministry will be well co-ordinated. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Kenya has become a centre and transit point for drugs. The price of heroine and other drugs has dramatically gone down in the last one year. The resources that the National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA) is being given are ridiculously low. If we want to fight the problem of drug trafficking and abuse and protect our youth, we must give the NACADA and other institutions that are supposed to fight drugs a substantial amount of money, so that they deal with this problem. I am happy to see that an attempt has been made in the creation of an advisory committee that will deal with this particular issue. But I would like to recommend that a substantial amount of money be sent to the NACADA institution. The previous Director said in a statement that his biggest worry was that drugs were controlled by \"big people,\" and it was difficult to fight them. So, to fight \"big people\" we need a lot of resources. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to talk about police housing. A year ago, my car broke down at a roadblock. I spent three hours with the police at that roadblock. They told me that they needed a lot of help. But they said they needed good housing more than vehicles. They insisted that I talk about housing for the police in Parliament. When a wife visits a policeman in a typical police station, he has to persuade his colleagues to move out, so that he can spend time with his wife and children. Good housing will give them the morale to do their work. To them, housing appears to be more important than the uniforms and boots that they are given. I also hope the prices of boots and uniforms will be reasonable. One of the advantages of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is that it has enabled us to learn the prices of things. We know that a uniform costs so much. But when it is bought by the police, it becomes very expensive. We would like to see the prices of these things reduced to reasonable levels, so that we can buy more. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to refer to the police recruitment. I know that there have been a lot of accusations in the past about the process of recruitment. However, the police and AP are doing a good job under difficult circumstances. This is because we are the same people who put pressure on them when it comes to recruitment. We are the same people who bribe them and demand our people to be employed. I would like to urge the Minister and his team to ensure that transparency continues and improves in the future, so that we can get the best material in the police and AP recruitment, and be assured of our security in the coming years. Anybody found to be involved in corruption on matters of recruitment should be dealt with ruthlessly and quickly, so that they can serve as an example to other people who are involved in the recruitment July 12, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2047 process. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, even in the most advanced countries, the bulk of printing is not done by a single government printer. We must consider the possibility of outsourcing some of the routine reports that the Government Printer does. I appreciate the position of certain security-type documents be done by the Government Printer, but we must create jobs for the small printers in our country. We should give them routine documents that do not require any security issues. If some of those businesses were given to small printers, I am confident that we will not be jeopardising Government security. On the contrary, we will be increasing efficiency, timely production of some reports and also increasing employment opportunities for our people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it appears that there is a quiet sacking of chiefs. I am not sure of the criteria being used to sack them. It is important for us to be careful because if today I make a complaint about some of them to a Government office; for example, to the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) or to the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) or to any office, whether it is a major complaint or not, that is often being used as one of the criteria for sacking chiefs. Chiefs play a very important role and we must encourage them. I agree that we must retrain them. But in the process that is ongoing to quietly retire and sack them, we must be very careful not to create more enemies for the Government by sacking too many of them. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you will recall that when we were supposed to use them to ensure that we win the referendum by threatening them, they reacted. So, let us not over- sack them because they have families and are men of great influence in the society. Part of the public relations job for the Government is to ensure that we do not sack many chiefs because we can create enemies at the grassroots level. This will make it very difficult for us next year when the General Elections approach. I am mentioning that fact because, in my district, I know that about 17, 18 or 19 chiefs have been affected. When you listen to the reasons for their sacking, I am not sure that the grounds are necessarily valid. I also know a district in the province where 30 chiefs and assistant chiefs have been affected. I am not sure if that will be good for the Government. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I finish making my contribution, security tenders is my favourite subject. I know that we must continue issuing security tenders, but we must scrutinize them and avoid what has happened in the past. This is a Ministry with huge balances when it comes to security tenders. So, let us be careful. In the last four years, we have learned the dangers and temptations which come with security tenders. We know that big money is involved here and you can utter Kshs1 billion and nobody will know, but those days are gone. We are monitoring them and we have institutions which are monitoring them. We know the sources of this equipment and we know the real costs. So, I would like to suggest to the people involved in the awarding of tenders to be careful. They should negotiate and re-negotiate Anglo Leasing type tenders, if they are negotiable. They should not leave the country exposed. With those few remarks, I beg to support. Thank you."
}