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"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
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"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
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"content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bill seeks to establish a Board that will be responsible for the day-to-day management and running of matters of statistics. This is important. I hope that when this Board is set up, it will open active and functional branches all over the country so that our statistics are updated literally on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. Statistics on birth, death, poverty and wealth indexes can be updated and upgraded all over the country if the Board has offices everywhere. I just want to point out to the Minister that Clause 8(2) needs to be made succinctly clear. It says in part: \"A person shall not be qualified for appointment as the Director-General unless such person has an advanced degree in the relevant field and at least, ten years experience in the management of public institutions.\" This is left hanging, although when you look back, you will see that the relevant field is described in Clause 5(3). I think Clause 8 should clearly point out that the relevant field \"as defined in Clause 5(3)\" so that we do not leave it to any doubt. We have seen cases where Ministers appoint people who are unqualified and hide in the law saying it has given them the leeway to do that. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on Clause 17, I would like the Minister to clearly indicate that the census cycle will be ten years. Indeed, he has already said that. But we want it in the law. If our census cycle is ten years, then it must be embedded in the law so that we do not get into a state like the Democratic Republic of Congo when it was called Zaire that went for 30 years without a census. Everything was done on guesswork. This has happened in many other counties. This creates a mis-match in development. It even leads to the plunder of national resources. We know of countries where, whenever they have a census, every region wants to over-state its population so that they can attract resources. So, if we have a ten-year cycle and offices are opened in every 1858 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 5, 2005 region where records are kept on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis, it then becomes easy to keep statistics and to direct resources. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Clause 22 is equally important. We do not want the information given to statistical officers to be used as an instrument of witch-hunting nationals of this country. So, it is good that the Minister has provided for the protection of information that the officers will pick from any Kenyan so that it is not used to undermine the freedom of Kenyans. Equally, such information may, under certain circumstances, especially if such information disclosed to a statistical officer discloses a commission of a criminal offence or acts that are prejudicial to the security of the State, I think the Minister should have a rider to this clause that information shall not be disclosed once gathered provided that, for example, such information leads the State to know that the provider of that information is a drug trafficker, a money launderer or a criminal of some nature. Then, that information will be necessary and helpful for the orderly governance of the country. We must protect the good people, but we should not use the law to protect the bad people. This is universally accepted. All in all, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bill is straightforward. After the passage of such a Bill, we want to see the country benefitting from improved information. I would want to see a situation where the Ministry concerned computerizes all its centres related to statistics so that it is easy to update the information available. You have seen the harrowing process through which the manual entries are made during the national population census when trying to get accurate figures. In fact, we sometimes end up either overstating or understating facts and figures. So, if we can follow this up with computerization, that will be good. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Clause 12, which allows the Board to manage and acquire funds, is equally important. This is such an important office for every Kenyan in the country that we should not, under any circumstances, give room for foreign funding. We know the conditions that come with foreign funding. I will not want to see any situation where, like it is provided in Clause 12, that the Board should or may accept donations. Who is giving these donations? You may have donations that will force the management of the Bureau to subvert statistics to say that we are either more or less than what we are, depending on what the donor wants. We have seen this happen before. This provision should not be in this Bill, and I hope my friend will look at it. I am sure that, as a Parliament and country, we can fund our statistical office to give it the necessary independence that it requires to gather information which is truly and wholly Kenyan and, therefore, serve the interests of this country. Otherwise, as the saying goes:- \"He who pays the piper calls the tune\". For example, you will accept funds from some country which wants us to overstate the number of gay men in this country and then start saying that we are trampling on them. You may have some donors who may want us to overstate the population of women or men in this country for devious reasons! The Minister should look at this issue when we come to the Committee Stage. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I do not think I need to belabour the point. The Bill is good and we need to pass it. We hope to operationalize the Bureau in a revamped manner so that it can serve this country. As we wait for the ten-year cycle to get an accurate figure of how many we are, they can roll out projections every year and say:- \"We have increased by this percentage, we have died by this percentage and so on and so-forth\". Equally important is the keeping of statistics relating to poverty and wealth indices in this country. We are all excited about the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). But we also know that some constituencies are not getting their fair share of the CDF allocation because of inadequate statistics. We also know that there are some constituencies whose poverty or wealth level are unknown. It is only through this that we will be able to make sure that we have accurate information that will help us to have equitable development and equitable distribution of resources July 5, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1859 in the country. With those few remarks, I beg to second."
}