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"id": 245931,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/245931/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Were",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Information and Communications",
"speaker": {
"id": 153,
"legal_name": "David Aoko Were",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Motion. From the outset, I support the Motion. I would like to congratulate the Minister for Finance for the well- balanced Budget which he read to us. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, just as other hon. Members have said, my problem with the Budget always comes at the time of implementation. We have very good things written on paper, but at the end of every financial year, we find that Ministries return the money to the Treasury. You find that most of the projects that have been planned for implementation are never implemented. I believe this has happened for many years. By now, Ministries should have established why this happens; that year in, year out, about half of the money that has been budgeted for is returned to the Treasury. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister informed us that the economy grew by 5.8 per cent. This is quite a good figure. He also indicated that 460,000 new jobs were created during the last financial year. The greatest problem that we are facing in this country is that of unemployment. Many of our youth who have completed school are not employed. The number is increasing year in, year out. What we would request is that the jobs that are being indicated as having been created should be tallied so that we are able to know exactly in which areas these jobs have been created. In my constituency, for example, the level of unemployment is very high. The 460,000 new jobs that the Minister talked about translate to about 2,000 jobs or more per year. I am unable to translate this when it comes to my constituency because the levels of unemployment are high. We would like the Government to put more effort on areas that can create employment. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was impressed when the Minister said that there were increased allocations in areas like health, education, infrastructure and agriculture. In the area of education, the Budget for this year has risen to Kshs99 billion, while Kshs71 billion is to be spent on teachers' salaries. With the introduction of Free Primary Education, the number of pupils in schools has increased tremendously, while the number of teachers has not increased likewise. This has created a heavy workload on the teachers. Previous speakers spoke of a pay increase for teachers which has been pending not only during this Government's time. It is a problem that started a long-time ago. I would propose that instead of increasing the salaries for teachers, we should plan to employ more teachers. The workload on the current teachers is too much. They are unable to cover all the classes. For instance, in my constituency, you will find that a school has about 900 pupils but there are only seven or eight teachers. A school with about 16 classrooms has eight teachers. It is impossible to manage it! Even if we increase the salaries, there is no magic that those eight teachers would teach 16 classrooms. I think the main thing that we should do is to increase the number of teachers so that the workload is reduced. This will ensure that all our pupils in primary and secondary schools can be taught properly. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of infrastructure, there has been an increase and a proposed increase to Kshs126 billion by the year 2008/2009. This is a good idea, but the problem comes at the time of implementation. Money is allocated, but at the end of the financial year, you will find that the money has not been spent. This is a process that goes on year in, year out. For example, if we talk of energy, in my constituency there is one project that was approved in 2004. It is only last week that they started digging holes for electricity poles. This project was approved two years ago, but it has taken long to be implemented. I believe at the end of every year, money was returned to the Treasury. With the new Estimates, the project has been recorded once more. We should try to improve on how the projects are implemented. On agriculture, I was also happy to note that the Vote has increased. I believe that this will help to improve agriculture in this country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the Youth Enterprise Fund, this is a very impressive step that the Minister has taken because most of our youth do not have jobs. If there can be a way of helping them to do business so that they can keep themselves busy, it will be good. However, I would request that this amount of Kshs1 billion be distributed fairly. I would like to propose that the June 27, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1631 formula used in the CDF distribution should be applied here so that each constituency gets a fair share from this amount. The Minister also talked about village youth polytechnics and he has allocated Kshs105 million. If you divide this amount per constituency, it will come to Kshs500,000 per constituency. This is nothing for a polytechnic. I gave about Kshs1 million to a polytechnic in my constituency but found it very little. So, when Kshs500,000 is given to a polytechnic, it is too little to do anything. However, we congratulate the Minister, because it is a first step. Maybe, next year, we will get Kshs1 million or more per constituency. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister dwelt a lot on women related activities, but, unfortunately, allocated no money to them. So, I would like to urge him to allocate some money for women activities. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the issue of Sugar Development Levy is a pet subject for many hon. Members from Western and Nyanza Provinces. I come from a sugar growing belt. 99.9 per cent of my constituents grow sugar-cane. They wholly rely on sugar-cane for their livelihood. In the past five years most sugar-cane farmers have been getting what was called DRs. At the end of every harvest period, farmers owed the sugar company some money. At the end of the harvest, they ended up not benefitting from growing sugar-cane. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have been advocating that we should zero-rate VAT on sugar- cane and reduce the Sugar Development Levy. But, unfortunately, it has happened the other way round. Farmers, who have been earning very little or nothing are going to pay another 7 per cent tax. This issue has caused a major cry in our constituencies. Farmers are asking why they should pay another 7 per cent levy. The price of sugar-cane per tonne dropped in the year 2003. When this Government came to power, sugar-cane farmers were earning Kshs2,015 per tonne. This dropped to Kshs1700, and now it has gone up to Kshs2000. But this is still below what farmers were earning in the year 2002. So, imposing another 7 per cent levy on them will discourage many of them. What is going to happen is that sugar companies will not increase the amount of money they pay per tonne of sugar-cane. Since this levy will become payable on 1st January, next year, we should have another look at it. The Ministries of Agriculture and Finance, Members of Parliament and other stakeholders should sit down and see how to implement this proposal, so that our farmers do not suffer. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am very happy with the increase in the CDF. This is because the increase from Kshs7.2 billion to Kshs10 billion is about 40 per cent. But we should realise that many constituencies have never seen funds coming directly from the Government. Most of the projects in our constituencies have been undertaken through Harambee or donor funds. In my constituency, I found out that in the last 40 years what has been constructed directly by the Government is negligible. But since 2003, a lot has been done by the Government. I wish to suggest that instead of increasing the Fund to Kshs10 billion, it should have been increased to 5 per cent. I know that hon. Members had asked that it be increased to 7.5 per cent. This would have allowed more development to be done in our constituencies. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}