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"id": 244834,
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"speaker_name": "Dr. Khalwale",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for East African Community",
"speaker": {
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"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I want to start off by congratulating my brother, Mr. Obwocha, for taking a bold step and doing what his predecessors were unable to do, in view of the fact that the issue of statistics at the national level can actually be a stabilising or a politically destabilising factor. Therefore, no wonder that, probably, his predecessors were unable to do what he has done. I congratulate the Minister! 1872 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 5, 2005 I am supporting this Motion because I believe that statistics are very important for planning in terms of resource allocation, disease control, disaster management and improvement of education standards in any country. Indeed, statistics are the national centre that would be the reference point for variable data. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I contribute on this Bill, I am thinking about the packaging of statistics. It is important that as we create this all-powerful parastatal, simplification should be a catch word. Sometimes statistics can be available, but unless they are packaged in a simple manner, they would be very difficult to get, for example, the identity of a Kenyan these days. A Kenyan has ten different ways of identification. If you are in Kenya, you can be identified by your national identification card (ID), your voter's card, your birth certificate, your National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), your National Social Security Fund (NSSF) card, and your passport. You can also be identified by your driving licence and baptismal card if you are a Christian or God-fearing person. Lastly but not least, you can be identified by your marriage certificate. It is important that statistics be packaged in a simple manner so that information like this can be found on one card carried by a Kenyan to be accessed by whoever wants information on him to get it quickly and efficiently. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when the Government is going to be faced with good statistics, after we have passed this law, we would like it to respect those statistics. When I say this, cases abound whereby when the Government is either allocating resources or putting in place structures that would determine how resources are controlled, sometimes the Government does not respect those statistics. For example, recently, when the Government ordered that new districts be created in this country, so many cases abound where leaders in various affected districts came together, made proposals based on statistics, and some so-called influential people have been delaying implementation of the proposed districts because they want to change what is guided by mathematical statistics to suit political expediency or whatever interests they have. A case in point is the division of Kakamega District into Kakamega North and Kakamega South. When you look at the fiasco that is currently delaying the creation of these new districts, it has nothing to do with statistics. Currently, if you divide Kakamega District as proposed by those leaders into North and South, you will find that the population has been cut by half. Since some political interests are insisting that Kakamega Municipality should not be found in Kakamega South, they are delaying the implementation of the new district. I request the Government to respect the statistics that allow Kakamega Municipality to be in Kakamega South and enact the new district. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, at the beginning, I talked about the issue of resource allocation. The catch word these days in the new way of doing things in the NARC Government is the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and the Constituency Bursary Fund. These funds, as we all know, are based on population and poverty index. Hon. Members have said before that when we look at the discrepancies in the amounts that our various constituencies receive, we wonder whether the Minister who was there when the idea of CDF was being implemented decided to play politics. When we look at distribution of the CDF funds and bursaries in this country, we see a big disparity. I wonder why, all of sudden, constituencies in Nyanza Province became very poor. Was this by design by Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o to ensure that---"
}