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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I take this opportunity to thank all the hon. Members who have contributed to this Motion. Secondly, I also take this opportunity to thank the Kenya Government which has enabled my delegation to attend all parliamentary and committee sessions without any financial problems. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as an organisation that is coming up, the PAP faces some challenges which have been highlighted by some of the speakers, more so those who are its June 14, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1391 Members. However, the most important challenge is lack of finance. The PAP has been experiencing financial problems and this is because most of the countries are in arrears and most of the African states belong to various organisations in Africa. You will find that Kenya belongs to the AU, Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD), COMESA and the EAC, and all these organisations require contributions from this country. Sometimes it is a problem for the countries to meet their various obligations if they have to contribute to so many organisations within the African region, and that is an area that we need to address. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue is that this year, the Heads of State decided that five African states; that is Algeria, Nigeria, Libya, Egypt and South Africa will contribute 75 per cent of the AU budget, and obviously if they are doing so then they are going to have the major say in all that happens in Africa. This was a mistake that the Heads of State made, to allow five countries to contribute 75 per cent of the budget and only 25 per cent is left for the other 53 states to contribute. You will find that last year, Kenya contributed about 4.1 per cent but because of the new arrangement, it has been reduced to contribute only 1.4 per cent. So, the other countries had to forfeit some of the fraction to the other five states, which means they will have a major say, in what happens in Africa. If they have a major say it means all the appointments at AU and so on, will be wholly decided by them. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the PAP has been very vocal especially on those countries that do not respect their constitutions. In Uganda, the presidential term limit was extended and it has also happened in Benin. So, two countries have already extended their presidential terms by amending their own constitution. The PAP is categorical that this extension of presidential terms is a bad precedent and should not be encouraged or tolerated. I should thank the Nigerian Parliament for having rejected the extension of the term of the current President, who has been the former Chairman of the AU. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also take this opportunity to request those member countries who have not ratified the PAP Protocol to do so because we have 54 independent countries in Africa but Morocco pulled out of the AU because of the problem of Saharawi. In fact, 53 countries remained in the AU and out of these countries, 46 of them have ratified the PAP Protocol leaving out the seven which are yet to do so, and I will use this opportunity to request the seven countries to ratify the PAP protocol. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue is that as a delegation from Kenya, we have been experiencing problems dealing with the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As I said earlier, resolutions that we passed at the PAP were transmitted to the summit, which is usually held twice a year in January and July of every year. The Ministry officials are the ones who accompany the President to those summits and we are not given a chance even to brief the President on what has gone on and why some resolutions had to be agreed on. I request the Minister for Foreign Affairs to grant us that chance because it is being given to the other member states. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the PAP has given us quite a bit of experience as Members of that Parliament because we have had an opportunity of going to missions on observation of elections in other countries. As my colleague said, Kenya is doing very well since elections in this country are quite fair and free, compared to other countries that we have had opportunities to observe their elections. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other experiences that Members of the PAP have had is that we have discussed the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) working environment, how the United Nations Security Council and the Peace and Security Council work in Africa. Now the Members of the PAP are well updated on those issues. 1392 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 14, 2006 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as Members of that delegation, we have also promoted the idea of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) because other Members from other countries have been interested in knowing how it works in this country. I was once given an opportunity to explain how the CDF works and most of the African states have said that they will send delegations here so that the same concept is introduced in their countries. Kenya, as a country, is respected because of its democratic principles, and especially freedom of speech that is being experienced under the NARC Government. There are also issues that we have learnt from hon. Members from other countries. Some of these issues include opinions they have formed about Kenya. One of the issues that keeps on coming up when we meet our colleagues in the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) is that of corruption. They feel that Kenya is one of the leading corrupt countries in Africa. This is an issue we need to address urgently. They also feel that Kenyan hon. Members are selfish because they keep on increasing their allowances. These are issues that come up and it is important that I mention them to my colleagues, so that we are aware of what other hon. Members of Parliament from other countries think about us. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I chair the Committee on Monetary and Financial Affairs of the PAP. I have had an opportunity of leading several delegations of the PAP to various capitals in Africa. I have found out that Kenya has done very well in most areas in terms of security, cleanliness of our cities and so on. However, there is one area that Kenya is performing very poorly. That is on the issue of infrastructure. I have visited about 10 countries in Africa, and I have noticed that infrastructure in Kenya is in a very poor state. I hope that since the Minister for Finance will present the Budget tomorrow, that issue of infrastructure will be addressed very seriously if we have to compete with other African states. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I hope that by establishing the PAP, we shall consolidate the vision of the African people, so that we have one united States of Africa in future. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to move."
}