Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 246903,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/246903/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 230,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 193,
        "legal_name": "Peter Anyang' Nyong'o",
        "slug": "peter-nyongo"
    },
    "content": "This is what Mr. Jaindi Kisero is saying in his article published in today's Daily Nation . We need the big ideas that were in the Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation to be implemented. If those big ideas are not implemented, we will continue to bring the Sargasyans and Margaryans into this country to protect the Government, but nothing will happen. More and more people will be poor and the economic growth rate will be determined by a few people, while the majority of Kenyans will continue being poor. That is why I strongly support this Motion. If you go to the rural areas, you will find that many of the rural entrepreneurs who are farmers borrow money from the so- called micro-finance institutions at very short repayment periods of three and six months and at very high interest rates. People should understand that micro-finance institutions do not necessarily give money at affordable interest rates. However, since they are the only institutions accessible in the rural areas, the poor have no alternative but to borrow money from them. The poor are very good at repaying those loans. In my constituency, I have one micro-finance institution, the only one that lends at 10 per June 14, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1350 cent, but it does not have enough capital. However, the money borrowed left, right and centre is repaid back promptly. So, Kenya Post Office Savings Bank should have no fear whatsoever. The moment it establishes institutions in the rural areas and lends money at less than 10 per cent interest rate on a long term basis of two or three years, its borrowers will be in millions. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, how many Kenyans were prepared to produce money and buy shares in KenGen? For the first time Oyugis township alone produced Kshs3 million to buy shares, in no time. Ugunja produced another Kshs7 million. Who ever knew that Kshs7 million could come from Ugunja and Kshs3 million from Oyugis? This means that Kenyans are ready to buy shares, invest and save. We are denying Kenyans the opportunity to borrow money and invest in agriculture. We will not eradicate poverty if we do not put capital in agriculture. That capital will come from devolution of resources, like we see with the CDF. Why do you think that money is now coming from a place like Ugunja? This is because money is now circulating in the rural areas through the CDF, the Bursary Fund and the Constituency AIDS Control Committees (CACCs). People have money in their pockets. Peasants who are masons, carpenters and contractors now have jobs in the rural areas for the first time. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in my constituency a man who retired in Nairobi several years ago and was a contractor is now tendering for jobs in my constituency and employing people. I went to visit him the other day and found that he had bought two dairy cows. He can actually prepare a balance sheet for his expenditure. These people are managers. When you say that Kenya has no managerial capacity, you are being very elitist. You are thinking of managerial capacity in terms of somebody wearing a tie like me and sitting in a building in Nairobi. You only need to go down the countryside and you will find a person managing two dairy cows, has a fish pond, two wives and children going to school. That guy is a manager!"
}