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"id": 245899,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/245899/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Moi",
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"speaker": {
"id": 305,
"legal_name": "Gideon Kipsiele Towett Moi",
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"content": "It is 7 per cent. I stand to be corrected. That allocation was done and yet, this country has never been to war. There are no threats. But the threat that we have today is that of poverty, hunger and illiteracy. That is where we should be channelling most our funds. The Minister has a habit of giving the citizens with one hand and taking away with the other hand. The Minister increased the Fuel Levy by Kshs3.20. That is totally unacceptable! We used to pay up to Kshs6,000 for a road licence. A limited number of Kenyans have cars. But when you increase the Fuel Levy, you are hurting even the common mwananchi . It is going to affect the prices of various commodities like food and transport. That was not very clever to do. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, secondly, there is an issue which we need to stand together and say in Kiswahili: \"Bega kwa bega\" with our colleagues from Western Province!\" They have increased Sugar Levy to 7 per cent. That will have one obvious effect. Imported sugar will be much more cheaper than locally produced sugar. That will encourage every Tom, Dick and Harry to import sugar. It will make life difficult for the local sugar-cane farmers. That is attested to by the fact that, all sugar-cane farmers are up in arms on that directive. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister did one or two things which must be commended. He increased funding to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). I say that because KWS has been a captive of international wildlife organisations which have been donating funds. They have been providing them with things like 200 sets of tyres and aircraft. Obviously, he who pays the piper calls the tune. The KWS has not been able to make sober decisions. They have been making them according to the whims of those international organisations. I am very happy that a Wildlife Policy Review Paper will be brought before this House. I hope and pray that in that Wildlife Policy Review Paper, there will be an annex allowing culling and hunting. I say that because it has come to a point where wildlife have to pay for their way. We cannot allow a situation where, at least, two people die every week due to wildlife related incidents. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, just to give you some facts, we have a situation in Narok where wheat farms are encroaching on the Maasai Mara Game Reserve. That is because people do not see the benefits of keeping wildlife, while growing wheat is much more profitable. 1610 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 27, 2006 Secondly, we have situations where zebras and cattle compete over the same pasture. Where a boran cattle drinks up to 30 litres of water per day, a zebra drinks 150 litres. Honestly, it does not take a rocket scientist to tell you which of the two you would rather keep. If we allowed hunting, we would be getting approximately US$800 per zebra. I would like to put the Minister on notice that, if we do not allow hunting, we will ask them to carry all the wildlife out of our areas and take them wherever they want. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister did his job well by cancelling the 118 trading licences that were required for one to operate a business in Kenya. However, the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) was only increased from 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent. That is way below what hon. Members wanted. We wanted it to be increased from 2.5 per cent to 7 per cent, although we could have settled for 5 per cent. But I am sure the Speaker's Kamukunji will take care of that. The CDF has done a commendable job in every constituency in this country. Finally, the allocation of Kshs11 million for each constituency--- I would like to commend my Committee - the Departmental Committee on Energy, Communications and Public Works. All they did was to change the figures. It has a very good effect. The constituency allocations have increased from Kshs5 million to Kshs11 million. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have zero-rated duty on wheat. But I would like to say that we must be very careful. We could be flooded with imports. We should be careful not to send wheat farmers out of business. The Minister for Finance has slightly increased the allocation to National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS). I really do not see why we should spend over Kshs5 billion on NSIS. I, personally, do not see what contribution they have made in this country. I would like to see that money slashed and allocated to the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Water and Irrigation and other core Ministries which are crying out for funding. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}