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{
    "id": 245432,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/245432/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 104,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Ali",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": ". Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister talked about the bursary funds. Some constituencies were getting very small amounts of money while others were getting a lot of money. However, my constituency will not be affected by the change. This money will now be disbursed through the CDF. Will it be of benefit to the rural Kenyans? How much will this money be? We are only allowed to give 10 per cent of our CDF as bursaries. So, what will happen to the constituencies which are getting over Kshs10 million? That is an issue that needs to be considered. The Minister should disburse that money the way that he used to allocate before. With regard to the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC), I would like to congratulate the Government for opening up the KMC. This is a good start. However, I hope that Kenyans will not go to the KMC and continue doing what they are good at; misappropriation and misuse of the resources that have been allocated to the KMC. The management of the KMC seems competent. The officers have a lot of experience. I hope that the oversight institutions, such as the Committees of Parliament, the Ministry of Finance and the parent Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development will do their work properly, so that the KMC does not collapse again. The problem in this country is that there is a lot of politics. Even when the Minister for Finance is reading his Budget, he politics around. The issue of the hon. Members paying taxes should not be a big issue. If the Minister wants to get money from the hon. Members' allowances, June 28, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1645 he should just talk to his colleague, the Attorney-General, and bring an amendment to the Miscellaneous (Amendment) Bill and the hon. Members will support it. If that is done, we will possibly pay about Kshs30,000 each, which will translate to a maximum of Kshs700 in total. If that will go a long way in helping Kenyans, then we should be proud of doing that. Issues of hon. Members and the constitutional office holders paying taxes are not issues for the Minister to talk about here. It is the responsibility of the Minister to do what he needs to do, so that if the hon. Members refuse to pay taxes, then we can be bombarded. I do not understand why most of us are being hit left, right and centre when we think that we are doing the right things. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Ministers should stop politicking about hon. Members because they are also hon. Members. They are first hon. Members and then Ministers. They should stop hitting at the hon. Members and talking about their salaries. All the hon. Members should pay taxes. The youths of this country have suffered. If you look at the people who occupy top positions in this country, you will find that they are all grandfathers, who will not think much about what happens to their grand sons, although most of them pretend to do so by marrying very young ladies. If the Government is serious, it should recruit relatively young and qualified people; less than 50 years old, to top positions. A young person is energetic and can work for long hours whereas a 75 year old officer dozes off when he sits in an office or a meeting for two hours. We cannot blame them! They are aged! When you are aged, there are certain jobs that you cannot do and you can only work for a certain number of hours in a day. We need energetic workers in this country and they are there in every region, even in the so-called marginalised areas. We have qualified young people who can work in all the sectors. The Government should not just talk about helping certain regions. If you want to help the regions of this country which have really suffered, the best way to do that is to open them up. Every day, we are being told that the Government wants to open up northern Kenya, so that we can do business with Ethiopia and Sudan. However, there are no roads and telephone facilities in the region. How will we open up the region? With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}