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"id": 244837,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/244837/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Khalwale",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for East African Community",
"speaker": {
"id": 170,
"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
"slug": "bonny-khalwale"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it leaves me wondering whether Prof. Anyang'-Nyongo', when he was the Minister for Planning and National Development, deliberately gave the impression that those July 5, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1873 constituencies were poor so as for them to access bigger packages of bursary funds and CDF money. I hope the Minister for Planning and National Development, hon. Obwocha, will not engage in a similar kind of deceptive initiative. I am saying that this is factual. If you get to Gem Constituency and Kisumu Rural, which borders Emuhaya Constituency, you will see that there is no difference between these two constituencies. But you will find that what is allocated to Emuhaya Constituency is smaller than what is allocated to Kisumu Rural Constituency. I truly submit that this is not coincidental. For instance, Bahari Constituency in Coast Province got Kshs60 million for the CDF. However, Bahari Constituency has less than 12 five-star hotels that provide employment to the local people. A constituency like Nyaribari-Chache has no single five- star hotel. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, may I also mention that Eldoret North Constituency got a whopping Kshs61 million. If you walk through Eldoret North Constituency, you will find that it is a very rich constituency, compared to Ikolomani. Why then should Eldoret North Constituency get all this money? If it is a question of population, it is known that the most densely populated constituencies are not in the Rift Valley Province but in Western Province. I now want to mention a few clauses that should be amended by the Minister. Clause 4(2) gives us the objectives and functions of the proposed bureau. I suggest that we add to Clause 4(2) a new subclause 4(2)(f), which should read: \"This parastatal will be responsible for ensuring that the Electoral Commission of Kenya collects, compiles and analyses all statistical information or matters under its purview\". This subclause will be useful because we all know the importance of statistics relating to voters in this country. Clause 5(1) deals with the management of the bureau. It says that the management of the bureau shall vest in a board of directors which shall consist of the following: a chairman, who will be appointed by the President. I propose that the Minister should have a relook at this issue of the President appointing the chairman of this board. In view of the fact that statistics can be used to determine the outcome of an election and allocation of national resources, it is important that the chairman be appointed by the President but subject to approval by Parliament. In this way, the President will not appoint somebody who will be politically correct. I also propose that to Clause 5(1)(d), we add a fourth paragraph. Paragraph (d) provides for members appointed by the Minister to represent bodies recognised by the Government. These are the private sector, non-governmental organisations, research institutions and the public universities. I propose that we add to this list the Kenya Medical Association and/or the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board. This is because matters of population, birth and death are best understood by medical professionals. I also propose that in Clause 5(3), which provides that a person shall be qualified to be appointed under this subsection (1)(d) if such a person has a university degree in either of the following: statistics, information technology, economics or social sciences, we add to this list a degree in medicine, especially in public health. This is because these are professionals who truly understand the science of population dynamics. Finally, I propose a relook at the First Schedule. In this Schedule, the Minister is dealing with matters related to statistical information, which may be collected, compiled, analysed, abstracted and published. I propose that besides the 42 items, which I have no quarrel with, we add item Nos. 43, 44, 45 and 46"
}