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"id": 244820,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/244820/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Nyachae",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Roads and Public Works",
"speaker": {
"id": 342,
"legal_name": "Simeon Nyachae",
"slug": "simeon-nyachae"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I am going to be very brief. The Bill is all right, at least, for some of us. It is a good Bill because establishing an autonomous body is a good thing. But I expected certain areas to be emphasized a lot more this time. The statistics we have seen over the years have been produced through some kind of survey that has been done countrywide, but the people out there do not know how you arrive at these figures. A way must be found to ensure that before these statistics are made national figures known to Kenyans countrywide, people need to know at the district level, probably through the District Development Committee (DDC). They should be told:- \"This is how your poverty is\". They should be told how their education levels are and how their agriculture is, so that they can respond and enlighten those who are collecting the statistics. But as things stand at the moment, statisticians go out, fill forms and nobody knows what they have gathered. Then next thing we hear is that the Ministry has come up with a document indicating that this area is poor and that area is poor to such and such an extent. But nobody knows how they arrived at that conclusion. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, my colleague has just mentioned the CDF. We have seen figures which differ from one area to the other. When we ask:- \"What has caused this difference?\" we are told:- \"These are the needs of that area because your population wants this or that. The other area has fewer people than your area\". But nobody knows because the census was done some time back and now we are being given figures which we do not understand. For us who are elected leaders, including councillors, when national allocations are done, we face our people down there and they tell us: \"Our neighbours in constituency so-and-so have been given so much. What factor was used for them to be given this much more than ourselves?\" When you start seeking clarification regarding this information, we are told that they have used statistical figures from the Ministry of Planning and National Development. We do not understand these figures! Even right now, I do not understand how they arrived at certain figures in my constituency and nobody has come forward to tell me what is happening. I appeal to the Ministry concerned that, once they have set up this parastatal, they must create a structure which will operate in the grassroots so that people are briefed. They should go there and give the people the preliminary information they have gathered and let them comment again. This may cause some revision to be done to the statistics. For one or two professionals to go out there, carry out some survey and think that they have got all the answers, is not correct. Even, we, Parliamentarians, who represent our people here, do not know all the problems in our constituencies. We do not know all the needs of our people. How can somebody travel from Nairobi to my constituency, collect data for one week, come back to Nairobi, and pretend to have gotten all the answers to the problems afflicting my people and then come up with figures? It is good that we develop a system of consultation. It is also important for this Department to be understood much more. The Department does not even organise seminars to tell us about its programmes. Nobody knows what its officers do. They just do their things very quietly out there. In the last financial year, a sum of Kshs650 million was spent to assess the level of poverty in the country. Some figures were subsequently published. We were told that some particular areas of the country were the poorest and yet we know that the areas that were reported to have been the poorest by that survey were, indeed, not the poorest. The areas that were poorest were left out of the survey. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is true that most areas in this country are poor but the way the 1860 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 5, 2005 level of poverty is assessed is, definitely, questionable, especially if you consider the amount of money that was spent on the exercise and the kind of report that was subsequently published. I will give an example of an area I know well. I worked in Central Province and happen to have a lot of knowledge about that area. So, to be told through such a survey that Kabete is the richest constituency in the whole of Central Province is not correct. I am yet to be convinced that, that is, indeed, the case, because I do not believe it. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Kabete Constituency includes Ndeiya where there is no water. It is not correct to say that, that constituency is the richest in the whole of Central Province. Karai area, which has no water, is also part of Ndeiya which is within Kabete Constituency. You just wonder how the Central Bureau of Statistics arrived at the conclusion, that Kabete is the richest constituency in Central Province."
}