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"id": 245262,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/245262/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kiunjuri",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Energy",
"speaker": {
"id": 175,
"legal_name": "Festus Mwangi Kiunjuri",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. I beg to support it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I have listened to eight Budget Speeches presented to this House previously. This ninth one is a Budget of hope. I am also confident that this Budget will be implemented. We have listened to Budgets here which were never implemented. I have confidence 1748 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 29, 2006 in this Government because its record shows that it has been performing at the rate of more than 90 per cent. The Government does not do things to please Kenyans but rather to improve their welfare. The Government has faith that the economy of this country can be turned around for the benefit of all of us. I also support this Budget because it addresses areas that ought to have been looked into a long time ago. As many hon. Members have said, this Budget is for the common man. Previously, we did not let the common man benefit from the achievements of this Government. The common man is now benefiting through the Constituency Development Fund. Money is now trickling down to the constituencies, where every Kenyan is benefiting. Every Kenyan can now see that this Government is serving the people. There is the Free Primary Education Programme and the Constituency Development Fund now being used to put up dispensaries, health centres, cattle dips, among others. The common man can now say: \"We are now, really, benefiting.\" Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for the first time, the Government has, through this Budget, targeted the rich for the benefit of the poor. That has not been the case previously. Therefore, we should look keenly at the proposals contained in this Budget and appreciate them. For the first time, the common man will enjoy the taxes he has been paying and reap from the exploitation by the rich. It is on record that the rich have been exploiting the poor. In order to achieve this, the Minister for Finance should, through the next Supplementary Estimates, enhance allocations to the Ministries through which the poor are targeted. For instance, we, at the Ministry of Energy produce and transmit electricity. If we are sufficiently funded, we can expand our electricity distribution programme to cover more shopping centres. People in the rural areas will open up electric power-based businesses such as barber shops, welding workshops, tailoring shops, et cetera. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the money allocated to us will be ploughed back to the villages. Instead of a poor farmer having to travel from the rural areas to urban centres to purchase a steel door or window for his house, or have his clothes well tailored, he will access those services at the local shopping centre once the people are provided with electricity. Therefore, availability of electricity in the rural areas will lead to self-employment opportunities. This will lead to even distribution of resources. Owners of welding machines in urban areas are the well-to-do. People can also create wealth for themselves in the rural areas if we supply them with electricity. So, if we distribute electricity evenly, every person will benefit directly. People in the rural areas will also become industrious. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Budget also targets the landlords. Tenants are now required to provide the PIN numbers of their landlords as they fill in tax return forms. That means, landlords who have been evading tax will now pay. The Kenya Revenue Authority will collect billions of shillings from landlords who have been evading tax. Once we get this money, we should use it appropriately. For instance, the Ministry of Environment and Natural resources has not been allocated much money in this Budget, and yet it is one of the Ministries that should be adequately funded. When we talk of electricity, water and many other development projects, but we do not take good care of our environment, we will not make any progress. Therefore, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources should be given more money than most Ministries. It should be the fourth-most beneficiary from the Budgetary allocation after the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Transport and Public Works, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Energy. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources June 29, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1749 should even be given more money than the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. You cannot talk of water resource development and environmental conservation if this Ministry is not adequately funded. It would be prudent for us to ensure that we have programmes that will facilitate the planting of more trees. That can be achieved by encouraging farmers to plant trees. We can encourage farmers to do so by subsidising them. We should encourage them to plant trees and then we buy them. In my constituency, we encourage farmers to plant trees, which we buy through the Constituency Development Fund and distribute them to institutions. So, farmers are now willing to grow trees. By so doing, we will be able to recover our forest cover. The money can also be advanced to the farmers. We have a lot of land left for community use. On that land, we can do a lot of water harvesting. We should not lack water because we can encourage communities to have water pans in each homestead. We should tap water, construct dams and water pans in order to preserve our rivers. If the good work being done under the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources is carried on, then our rivers will be sustained. The degradation of the environment and rivers would also come to an end. If we do not take care, very soon, there will be conflict in the use of water. I support the Ministry of Youth Affairs. However, we might set aside Kshs2 billion for the youth, but eventually, the money might not go to help those it is intended for. The first thing we should have done is to ensure proper management of the fund. Let us have workshops which should not be expensive so that when we train, we do not consume all the money meant for the youth. If I were to go to Nanyuki today, Laikipia East, and ask the youth groups there to come up with projects, they would not know what projects to embark on. Money should be set aside to train the youth groups and advise them. We have many disadvantaged groups which are not even aware of how to manage the fund. We should come up with a well defined policy, rules and regulations and proper guidelines. Otherwise, we may give out money but not achieve anything. Just as we created the CDF, we should have a department to deal with the Youth Development Fund, so that we can monitor the projects that are carried out. We should have a monitoring body and know how to follow up the use of funds and ensure that there are good results. If we do not do that, we will have set aside funds and we will not know if the money is being used properly. On the issue of polytechnics, most of them are completely run down. That is where we are targeting the youth money to go to. For us to achieve industrialisation, I believe that the polytechnics should be well supported. It is true that parents cannot be able to pay for the training of their children to become mechanics, owing to the exorbitant fees charged in the training institutions. They instead opt to pay mechanics who are already practising to train their children but at the end of the day, they do not get certificates. How can we ensure the money will reach mechanics who already have garages and are training the youth so that they can be able to compete with other Kenyans? Shall we ensure that we can train the youths in polytechnics and give them certificates which they can advance to diplomas and eventually degrees? We should give out money, but also ensure that those people who are being trained in the polytechnics are properly trained. We should also set aside some of that money to ensure that we train teachers and all those people who will manage our polytechnics. It is my wish that the Ministry of Youth Affairs will be able to undertake all that and that it will manage the resources we have. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}