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"id": 245738,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/245738/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr Shaban",
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"speaker": {
"id": 139,
"legal_name": "Naomi Namsi Shaban",
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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I want to congratulate the Minister for having taken care of squatters in the Budget. Taveta is an area where the issue of squatting has been very thorny for very many years. This is a subject that we have discussed here and I have also been to the Ministries concerned to discuss the same issue. Finally, at least, somebody somewhere has remembered that squatters must be settled. I have actually been 1716 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 28, 2006 taken to court for taking water to squatters in my constituency. So, this is a very welcome gesture. I hope that this will be the beginning of settling down squatters and it will be a budgetary item every year so that as many people as possible can be settled by the Government. With regard to roads, I have looked at the list of the major roads that have been considered in the Budget. The Minister, when reading his Speech, mentioned the Taveta-Mwatate-Voi Road. However, when I went through the Budget, I did not see money for this road factored anywhere. This is a major road and when people talk about major roads and they do not talk about Taveta- Mwatate -Voi Road, then I do not know what a major road entails. This particular road joins our country, on the southern side, with Tanzania. It is embarrassing that so often most of us have to go through Tanzania when travelling to our constituencies. The Tanzania road which joins our two countries is a far much better road than ours which is in a very bad condition. Every time the Government spends money on gravelling the road, the rains come and sweeps it away. We are forced to go back to where we started. It is a major road that serves, from Mombasa, the northern part of Tanzania. The people of Tanzania like using the Port of Mombasa since it is easier to clear goods there. So, the road is a fairly busy one and if the Government funds the construction of this road, most likely, it will recover its money because of the economic activities by Tanzanians from the northern part at the Port of Mombasa. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to talk about the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). Whereas the Minister talked about not depending so much on donors, it is a pity that what has been factored in by the Government to fund the KWS is minimal. The KWS is supposed to be mostly donor-funded. We cannot go on hoping that a body like the KWS can only be donor-funded, yet we expect it to take care of our wildlife which promotes tourism. The people of Taveta have suffered because of the human/wildlife conflict. I thought in this particular Budget we would have some amount of money allocated for the construction of electric fences. Human/wildlife conflict is one of the major problems facing people who live near game parks and reserves. The people of Taita-Taveta are poor, yet the KWS has not been given money to put up electric fences, a very expensive undertaking. We cannot expect the Constituencies Development Fund alone to fund construction of electric fences. Because of the human/wildlife conflict in that area, it is very difficult for the people living in Taveta to carry out the fencing of the national park next to them as a community programme. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to talk about hardship allowance for teachers. It is a pity that there are areas where teachers in a neighbouring constituency get a hardship allowance while those in the next constituency do not. The constituencies could be divided by a road. You will find that teachers on one side of the road get a hardship allowance while those on the other side of the same road do not get it. All the teachers in Mwatate get a hardship allowance, but those in Taveta, who live in a more remote place, deserve it even more. The teachers in Kajiado District, which neighbours us on the northern side, also get the hardship allowance. I hoped that during the last review of the teachers' salaries, the hardship allowance for teachers in my area would be introduced."
}