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"id": 246544,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Kibunguchy",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Health",
"speaker": {
"id": 294,
"legal_name": "Enoch Wamalwa Kibunguchy",
"slug": "enoch-kibunguchy"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I stand to support the Budget proposals that were read by the hon. Minister for Finance. I would like to commend the Minister for not factoring in donor funding in this year's Budget. If Kenya was a human being, we could say that it is 43 years old. I think we are old enough to stand on our own two feet. I think it was a bold move by the Minister and his predecessor to stop relying on donor funding. One thing with donor-funding is that, it comes with all kinds of conditionalities. When you look at some of the problems in this country like poverty and unemployment, quite a number of them relate directly to some measures that donors wanted us to implement a decade ago. They wanted us to introduce measures on cost-sharing and down-sizing of staff working for the Government. The hon. Member who has just contributed has complained about lack of health workers. That is one of the direct things that came from donor conditionalities some years back. They said that our public service was bloated. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am glad to note that for the first time after many years, the Ministry of Health has started to employ more staff. We realised that most of our health facilities are grossly under-manned. I would like to assure the House and the nation that every year, we will employ more workers so that our health facilities are well-manned. In that connection, I would also like to commend the hon. Members from across the divide for having realised and appreciated the fact that health is a very important component of development and channelled a large percentage of their respective Constituency Development Fund (CDF) towards the construction of health facilities. I would like to say one or two things about the decentralised funds, and they are quite many in this country, such as the CDF, the Local Authorities Transfer Fund (LAFT), the Road Levy and the Constituency Bursary Fund. Firstly, these funds have made a great difference at the grassroots level. The time has come for us, as a nation, to appreciate the fact that these funds would do much more if they were all consolidated into one basket. All these funds should be put into one June 20, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1457 constituency basket and from there, we can sit down as leaders in all the constituencies and see how we can best use them once they have reached us. Very often, you will find that there is quite a bit of duplication of what is being done. When constituency committees and county councils sit to prioritise their projects, there is quite a bit of duplication. If all these funds were put into one basket, this would be avoided completely. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we should appreciate the fact that this is going to be the way of life, and we are always going to have funds devolved to the constituencies. The time has come for us not only to devolve funds, but also personnel at the constituency level. I come from a constituency that is virtually a district and it is very easy sometimes to work closely with the District Development Officer (DDO) and the District Accountant and other Government officials. Sometimes I wonder what happens to the districts that have four or five constituencies and yet they have only one DDO and one District Accountant. We need to think seriously and see if these funds will achieve the targets that they are meant to. The time has come for us not only to devolve funds, but also personnel, especially the Provincial Administration and other Government officers, to the level of the constituency rather than to the level of the district. I would also like to comment on the funds that were set aside for the youth. In the same spirit of us devolving funds to the grassroots, these funds should also be devolved directly to the constituencies. We should divide the Kshs1 billion by 210 constituencies and send the funds directly to the constituencies, so that we, as leaders at that level, shall sit down with our young people and form committees to see which are the best projects or the best channels that this money can be channelled to. I support the proposal to tax the hon. Members' salaries. I also support the proposal to limit the number of vehicles that Ministers, Assistant Ministers and Permanent Secretaries should have. I would like to spend some time talking about agriculture. I am glad to note that the Minister for Finance has put in quite a bit of money in the Ministry of Agriculture. We must find ways of cushioning our farmers. I would like to see a situation where certain subsidies are given to our farmers for them to produce more. We pride ourselves that Kenya is an agricultural country. In Lugari Constituency, we have small-scale farmers who produce mainly maize. When it comes to the time of selling their produce, all kinds of conniving middlemen come in and buy the maize at a throw-away price. The Government should cushion the farmers. I would like to see a situation where certain price controls are introduced, especially to cushion the small-scale farmers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to commend the Government for the very successful free primary education programme. I know that many hon. Members have put the bulk of their CDF into the construction of classrooms. In that same vein, I would like to ask the Government to employ more teachers. I would also like to see the concept of free primary education being extended a little further. In my view, the next logical way to go with the free primary education is to introduce free day secondary education. I would like to advocate that the little money we get for bursary, rather than it being given to students who are sometimes not extremely needy, should be pulled together and it goes directly to support secondary education. Finally, I would like to talk about credit provision. If we are really serious about fighting poverty and tackling the issue of unemployment in this country, we must offer credit to the majority of our people in the rural areas. I was a little disappointed when we said that the Kenya Post Office Savings Bank should give credit to our people and the Minister for Finance opposed that. I would like him to think further because in most places in this country, it is only the Kenya Post Office Savings Bank that is available and it is the only one that can be used as a vehicle for this. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}