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"id": 245697,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Wambora",
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"legal_name": "Martin Nyaga Wambora",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the Budget Speech. I will make very brief comments. I will touch on general issues before going to sectoral issues. I want to comment on the economic growth. I join my colleagues in congratulating the Government for the growth in the economy as reflected by the very strong Kenya Shilling. A lot of foreign reserves have gone up to more than Kshs2 billion. There are other indicators like the 5.8 per cent growth rate and per capita income which stood at US$485 per annum in 2004. All these are good. However, we should not be complascent because of that outstanding economic growth, because the poor are yet to feel the impact of this growth. We have a challenge, which we can face in three ways so that we narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. One way is to ensure that the economy grows further to, at least, 7 per cent, so that the poor can begin feeling the impact of our economic growth. Secondly, we need to improve governance. This will reduce wastage and corruption. The third way is employment creation. I see a pro-poor Budget as the one which focuses more on employment creation. There are many ways of going about this, but since I do not have much time I will not highlight many of them. I will just highlight two of them. First, we need to decentralise resource allocation. Doing this will necessitate an increase in the allocation to the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). I know the allocation has grown from 2.5 per cent to 3.1 per cent. But that is not good enough. We would be happy with 5 per cent. I hope that in the next financial year we shall be allocated between 5 per cent and 7 per cent of the revenue, so that we can create employment in the rural areas and at the grassroot level. Secondly, we need to address unemployment. I do not even want to talk about future employment, but immediate employment. We have many vacancies in the economy, which should be filled. I want to cite two sectors. One of them is health and the other is education. We are told that there is a demand for 60,000 teachers in this country, both in high schools and primary schools. But we are not employing teachers. The excuse the Government has given is that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that we should not do so. I think this is an unacceptable scapegoat. We should not use the IMF as a scapegoat. I had a chance to be at the IMF offices on 10th June, 2006, with my colleagues in the Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade. I remember meeting an Executive Director, who is responsible for Kenya and 20 other countries. He told us in no uncertain terms that non-employment of teachers is not an IMF policy, but the attitude of the Treasury bureaucrats. I can quote this man without fear. This is a Kenyan who is serving as an alternate Executive Director of the IMF. He is as unhappy as the hon. Members when we give excuses for not employing teachers. So, the Government must accept its responsibility and employ teachers and nurses. It should stop giving unnecessarily excuses. The IMF is not responsible. June 28, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1701 Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to move to the sectoral priorities. I wish to start with education, which is enjoying the biggest allocation, 27 per cent of the total Budget, namely Kshs99 billion. This is as it should be. We only need to take care of employment of more teachers, so that the standard of education can be higher. Instead of having to export our teachers to Rwanda, Botswana and Seychelles, we should just employ them so that our school performance can be even much better. Kenya is the only country in the world that trains personnel but does not make full use of that trained personnel. That is completely unacceptable. I was not very impressed when I looked at the Budget formatting for the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Local Government. One cannot tell how much money will go to a constituency or district. The two Ministries should borrow a leaf from the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. When you look at their budgets on development you can tell how much money is for this and that district. That is the way to prepare a Ministerial budget. This will ensure that we avoid corruption. When all the money is left at the headquarters, we will get hon. Members going to negotiate with the Ministers. We do not want to do that. I wish to thank the Government for allocating more funds for agriculture. That is exactly as it should be. But what we now need to do in agriculture is value addition and branding of our products for better value, so that the customers can get what they want. Marketing is another area that needs to be addressed both at the starting and finishing point. Without proper marketing we shall not be able to sell our products. I want to end my comments on sectors by looking at the physical infrastructure. This is the part of the Budget which impressed me most. I have travelled to over 60 countries, and I have not come across any country in the world with poorer roads than Kenya, unless it is a failed state like Somalia or Southern Sudan. I am very happy with the Minister's move to introduce the infrastructural boards. That is music to my ears because it is the way to go. We must buy this concept. This is a concept which should have been implemented yesterday, because it is employed in most countries. I can quote specific states which I have visited. They are Georgia, Texas, California and Washington DC. They build their roads by selling long-term bonds. They actually privatise the construction of roads. Since 2003, they have been raising money through bonds and they are able to develop their infrastructure. That is the road to take. So, we need to set up a framework which will facilitate operationalisation of this instrument so that we can begin utilising this modern concept used by developed countries. Before I leave the issue of infrastructure, let me comment on the idea of a free port. We, in the Departmental Committee of Finance, Planning and Trade, have managed to tour some of the best ports in the world, including Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai and Bangkok. I can assure you that they raise a lot of money because they have managed to privatise their ports. I think Mombasa should go that route. I would encourage the Minister for Transport to now bring their report to our Committee so that we can share ideas about a free port for Mombasa, and much later, start Lamu as a second free port. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the progress being made in the Ministry of Energy through Ken- Gen is commendable. The Ministry utilised its resources properly this financial year. I think they have the best record; 94 per cent of their budget was able to be utilised by the end of May. I think if other Ministries can follow that route, then we shall be making a lot of progress in the field of infrastructure in the energy sector. The water sector also did very well this year. By the end of last month, the Ministry of Water and Irrigation had managed to spend 93 per cent of their budget. We cannot say the same for other Ministres, like the Ministry of Roads and Public Works which only spent 57 per cent of their budget. With those remarks, I beg to support. 1702 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 28, 2006"
}