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"id": 245905,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/245905/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kosgey",
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"speaker": {
"id": 177,
"legal_name": "Henry Kiprono Kosgey",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister is not listening to my contribution because he is busy talking to the Minister for Co-operative Development and Marketing. However, he should re-consider this very heavy levy which will affect the poor. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister said that transport costs will be cheaper because roads will be made. However, three years down the line since this Government came into power, we have not seen any roads being constructed. I do not know what miracle is going to happen in the next one and half years to 2007. I do not see the miracle happening. There will be no miracle! While still on the issue of poverty, Kenyans are suffering in two major sectors. The first is education. They cannot afford to pay school fees for their children. I expected that this Budget would have increased the amount allocated to the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) so that all students going to the universities can be given sufficient loans. At the moment, we have drop- outs from the universities. I also expected that more bursaries would have been given to secondary school students and not the Kshs800 million which is given year in, year out. Now I understand that it was vague. The Minister might be thinking of transferring that money into the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). I urge all CDF committees to resist that move. The money for bursaries must go directly to the Ministry of Education. It should not be lumped with the CDF. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of agriculture, we have been told that agriculture is growing. It is true that there may be an increase in tea production and other crops. However, the most important thing is what the farmers are getting. Currently, the farmers are getting a negative income. Although they may have increased their production to over two acres, but because of the cost of the input and the strengthening of the Kenya Shilling, they are not getting any money. Those of us who come from farming areas know this for a fact. It is a pity that the Sugar Development Levy (SDL) has been shifted to farmers. I come from a sugar-cane growing area and the price of sugar-cane has been Kshs1,735 per tonne for the last ten years. Now the Minister is trying to put a levy on that. We should not forget that the same farmers are paying cess yet they are not getting any services. On top of the cess, they are supposed to pay the SDL yet they are not getting any services from that levy. So, why should farmers bear a burden when they are not getting any benefits? The Minister should have increased the producer prices. Why have the producer prices remained static for the last ten years? I would like to call 1616 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 27, 2006 upon the Minister to rescind this particular decision of the SDL being passed onto the farmers. It will not help sugar production in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Government has a high capacity to \"generate\" poverty in this country. We have people living as squatters now in Mau Forest. These are Kenyans who had title deeds to their property! They are now destitutes in their own land. We also have people who have lived, for the last one century, in Kipkurere but are now destitutes in their own land. We have people in Kalgol, Marakwet and Embobut who have been rendered destitutes by this Government. After demolishing property and burning their houses, the Government has turned round and promised to resettle them. Why does the Government not identify the land first and then move the people to those places, if they are very genuine? Two years ago, the people of Mau Forest were displaced from their land and they are suffering. The main intention of this Government is to inflict injury, poverty and to cause mayhem to its own citizens. Health is a very important thing. I expected that cost-sharing in the health sector would have been scrapped by now. Kenyans should have access to free medical services. It is a right. It can be borne by all Kenyans by having some kind of health insurance as was proposed. However, in the meantime, while we are still waiting for the enactment of the law, there is nothing that will stop the Minister from scrapping the cost-sharing currently existing in our hospitals. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of the Youth Enterprise Fund, this is the only new thing I can congratulate the Minister for initiating. This money should be distributed to the constituencies just like the CDF. This will ensure that each constituency can have its own revolving fund to lend to the youth for development projects in those areas. If it remains in the Ministry, it can be dished out for political purposes as we know next year is an election year. Therefore, before this money is disbursed, we would like to know the criteria to be used. It should be distributed to every constituency. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}