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"speaker_name": "Mr. Lesrima",
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"legal_name": "Simon Saimanga Lesirma",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I would like to start by saying that this is a very innovative Budget. There are lots of good ideas in the Budget. The problem is that the implementation and enforcement of this Budget will not take us where we want to be. I like the idea of creating the Drought Contingency Fund. Initially, we used to have drought every ten years. With time, that period changed to every four years and, lately, every two years. I am afraid that drought may be an annual event in this country. Therefore, the idea of creating the Drought Contingency Fund is most welcome. I hope that all the stakeholders and the \"stick holders\" will be involved in working out a strategy of facing drought before it arrives. The only problem is, of course, the small amount of money put aside by the Minister for this purpose. The Kshs500 million is, really a drop in the ocean. Perhaps, what will be required would be some form of taxation to increase the allocation to this Fund. I am aware that this is a kitty that will be contributed to by other stakeholders, including the donors. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, another good thing about this Budget is the re-opening of the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC). Those of us from livestock keeping areas hail this initiative, although we have been hearing the Minister for Livestock and Fisheries talk about reopening the KMC over the last three years. The KMC is being opened with an initial capital of Kshs200 million. With that small working capital, if 200 cattle will be slaughtered everyday, it means that the Minister intends to open the KMC for only one month and then close it. The Kshs200 million allocated for KMC is not adequate. Although we lost 70 per cent of livestock in the last drought, in certain areas, the animals managed to survive. I can assure this House that we have adequate livestock in Samburu District. We are ready, at any moment, to sell 20,000 herd of cattle and still have a balance. That explains the problem we have with our neighbours who have been stealing cattle from us everyday for the last three months, including last night. If we can have an opportunity to sell our cattle, we will put the money that will be realised into other forms of investment. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we plan to diversify our economy away from livestock 1452 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 20, 2006 because we are also losing lives in the process. In my constituency alone, we have lost 8,000 head of cattle to cattle rustling over the last four months. At the rate of Kshs10,000 per cow, that translates to about Kshs80 million. So, if you put this into perspective, you will realise that the Kshs200 million that has been allocated to the KMC for operations is inadequate. Therefore, I urge the Minister to increase this amount. The other point I wanted to talk about concerns the Minister's plan to meet the deficit. The deficit of Kshs57 billion that was mentioned in the Budget is huge. If you consider other figures which have not yet been mentioned, the deficit could go up to Kshs175 billion. The Minister gave us a programme for meeting the deficit. The programme includes privatisation of public institutions like the TELKOM, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), National Bank of Kenya (NBK) and the Kenya Reinsurance Corporation. We have talked about privatisation for the last ten years. Privatisation requires Bills being presented and passed in this House. However, the speed at which we conduct our business, owing to our own internal bureaucracies, I do not think we can privatise all those companies so as to provide money to the Government to meet the deficit. That is a problem the Minister has to address. Regarding the use of public vehicles, it is an issue which used to be discussed by the previous Government. The previous Government wanted to implement a system where one could take a vehicle---"
}