HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 246519,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/246519/?format=api",
"text_counter": 154,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Awori",
"speaker_title": "The Vice-president and Minister for Home Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 290,
"legal_name": "Moody Arthur Awori",
"slug": "moody-awori"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I know that there is money given to improve agriculture. I would like to see much more money allocated to the revival of the cotton industry. We have not benefited from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) other than by having a few people employed in some factories. The reason is that all the cotton that we require is imported from Tanzania, China and other places. Considering that the people who are manufacturing in bond are not necessarily Kenyans, we have had very little advantage from AGOA. I suggest that we take very serious steps to revive cotton production. We do not need any experiment or research. We know that cotton grows extremely well in various places. Some of us got education because of cotton growing in our areas. What do we need to revive the cotton industry? If you look at the cotton growing zones, you will see that what is required is to upgrade the way we prepare our land and plant this crop. To do this, we need agricultural equipment. There should be a special fund from which to avail agricultural equipment, so that the people in our cotton growing areas can improve cotton production and also increase acreage on cotton. At one stage, a small place like Busia District produced 60,000 bales of cotton per year. It is very disheartening to note that the whole of Kenya last year produced not more than 30,000 bales. We can produce up to a million bales, which will help us not only to revive our textile factories but also to export cotton. I would like to congratulate the Minister for having given serious attention to the youth. More money is required to strengthen the informal, or Jua Kali, sector. The level of employment went up by 480,000 jobs last year. Of this number 440,000 jobs were in the jua kali sector and only 40,000 jobs were in the formal sector. What is required now is to build proper Jua Kali workshops but not sheds. In these workshops, we must upgrade the skills of the Jua Kali artisans. We should give them entrepreneurship skills, so that they know how to buy raw materials and how to cost their labour. We should teach them how to market their products. We want to reverse the trend of importing goods from Malaysian Jua Kali artisans. It is high time we sold products from the Jua Kali sector to the markets in Dubai, the USA, Malaysia and so on. All the proposals contained in this Budget are very good, but the most important thing is implementing them. We have to ensure that every proposal in this Budget is properly implemented for the benefit of all Kenyans. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are certain areas which have not been addressed at all in this Budget. These areas need to be looked at in the future. Because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other illnesses, we now have 1.8 million children who are called Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs). These children are, at the moment, in the hands of either institutions or very old people like grandmothers and grandfathers. A good number of these children can grow up and become useful citizens. In fact, they could grow up and become leaders in this country. In my Ministry, we have started an experiment which is called Cash Transfer. We started with three districts where we experimented with a few families. All we did was to take one orphan and find a good family for him or her. We gave out, say, Kshs500 to the family to cater for the child. It has worked so well so that the experiment which started with only five districts has now been extended to 15 districts. Given that we have 1.8 million orphans in this country, I would wish to suggest that, in the future, we need to put money in the Budget so that we can, for example, start a seven-year plan where, every year, we finance about 100,000 or 200,000 orphans. This will come to about Kshs1 billion a year. I am sure that this amount of money will give a lot of hope to orphans. Instead of them being sent to grow up in orphans'institutions they will now have a chance 1444 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 20, 2006 to grow up in homes where there is love and companionship. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to taxation, this is something that needs to be looked at carefully. It has been stated that Kenyans are the most heavily taxed people. We need to look at the rate of taxation so that we can also attract those who try to evade taxation. Let us bring down the rates of taxation, but again widen the net so that more people can pay taxes. That will also work out well given the economies of scale where a large number of people would pay less individually, but eventually the net amount that is collected is a lot. That money will help our economy to grow. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those remarks, I beg to support."
}