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{
    "id": 244524,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/244524/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 95,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Oloo-Aringo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 358,
        "legal_name": "Peter Oloo Aringo",
        "slug": "oloo-aringo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, may I first of all take this opportunity to thank all the hon. Members who have contributed to this Motion. I would also like to thank all the hon. Members who wanted to support the Motion through their contribution on the Floor of this House, but did not have the time to do so. I hope they will give their vote to this particular Motion. The first point I want to state here is that the Government must end hostility to the informal sector. What do I mean by hostility? You read about hawkers in the streets of Nairobi. There is a continuous battle between the askaris of the Nairobi City Council and the hawkers as if the hawkers were vermins. It is as if the hawkers are a different species of animals and yet they only require to do legitimate business. What do we do to hawkers? We criminalise their activities. Whether you talk of Nairobi, Mombasa or Kisumu, those respective councils are all hostile to the hawkers who are only trying to pursue and obtain legitimate income. Instead of us supporting them through the law and creating loans for them to borrow, we are fighting them up and down the streets. In fact, they are seen as the enemies of the Government. That is why this Parliament must set a new trend of creating laws that will support hawkers and the informal sector in general. The purpose of this Motion is to capitalise the informal sector. Who are the people who deposit money in the Kenya Post Office Savings Bank? They are the Jua Kali artisans, watchmen in our homes and even prostitutes. It is true that prostitutes also save their money in the Kenya Post Office Savings Bank. If you go across the board, this is the lowest level in our society. Though these people deposit their money, we do not allow them to borrow the money. What I am suggesting here is to end the culture of giving out hand-outs. Even in our constituencies, let us make it possible for a Jua Kali person to go to the nearest Kenya Post Office Savings Bank to borrow money in order to capitalise his or her enterprise. This is one way of fighting poverty, liberate our people and to make this economy to move forward. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the conventional banks have not supported the informal sector. However, the deposit from small farmers and traders eventually ends up buying Treasury Bills and Government Bonds. It is that money that is in the collapsed banks. All the banks which have collapsed in this country do so with billions of shillings from the small depositors of Kenya Post Office Savings Bank. In this country, we are not going to eradicate poverty if we do not address the problems facing the down-trodden by making credit available to them. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the thrust of my argument is that credit is a human right concern just as education, provision of good health and clean piped water are human right issues. Let us move from these economics where we support the formal economy expecting it to support the 1812 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 5, 2006 informal. Parliament must provide the leadership. I would like to assure my good friends, hon. Angwenyi and hon. Wetangula, that, indeed, I am already on the drawing board. I promise that I can produce this piece of legislation and bring it to this House by the time we return in September, 2006. I hope we shall be able to liberate the poor people from the vicious cycle of poverty by making affordable credit available to them. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to move."
}