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"id": 252436,
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"speaker_name": "Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o",
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"speaker": {
"id": 193,
"legal_name": "Peter Anyang' Nyong'o",
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is probably what is happening. That is why I am saying apart from this Government being illegal, it is irresponsible and it is mis-using the funds of the public. This House, as a House elected to look after the taxes of the citizens of this country, cannot possibly vote in Printed Estimates of this nature. I am sure that any Minister of Finance and hon. Members knowledgable in accounting matters, will support me. If you go through this document, and look at items under Other Operating Expenses in whatever Ministry, you will realize that there is a rise from a meagre figure of Kshs5 million or so, to hundreds of millions. Unless the Government can offer ocular proof that Other Operating Expenses can be clearly itemised and explained, I would plead with hon. Members to be responsible to the people of Kenya and reject the Printed Estimates. Mr. Speaker, Sir, having said that, and having convinced the House that these Supplementary Estimates must be rejected until the Government explains these figures correctly, let me move on to other issues. A sum of Kshs200 million that is allocated for the increase in the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) is peanuts. The CDF, as every hon. Member of this House knows, has revolutionised the distribution of resources to the grassroots. We know for certain that we have problems of capacity building of the CDF. However, problems of capacity building should inform this House that we need more resources to strengthen the CDF rather than to disparage it. If you add Other Operating Expenses in these Printed Estimates, you will find out that they amount to billions of shillings. A Government that is concerned about poverty eradication would rather put this money into grassroots expenses where poverty exists than spread it in a very deceptive manner, to what they are calling, Other Operating Expenses. I submit that the money needed for strengthening the CDF exists in these Printed Estimates under an Item called, Other Operating Expenses. Indeed, if we are being fair to the people of Kenya, who are the taxpayers, the Printed Estimates should be revised, and that money, which the Minister is saying is not there, should be taken to where it ought to be. That is to the eradication of poverty at the grassroots level. I want to address another issue. We know that there has been haemorrhage in Government expenditure through what is called lease financing. Hon. Members in this House have said, and I 640 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 25, 2006 agree with them, that lease financing of Government expenditure, particulary if it is for Development Expenditure is quite a noble thing. However, when lease financing goes to fleecing the country, this is not noble. When we came to Government, we promised the people of Kenya that we would build the Mombasa Highway, from Mombasa to Busia as a dual carriage way. I must confess to this House that this idea was originally mine. I know that when the President was addressing a fund raising function at Hotel Intercontinental in October, 2002, I put that issue in his speech. He annunciated it in a very clear and committed fashion. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we are now in 2006 and have no dual-carriage road between Busia and Mombasa. Rather than building a dual carriage road between Busia and Mombasa through lease financing, we have financed very funny projects in the Office of the President, which, in the final analysis, have been proven to be non-existent. At stake in these Supplementary Estimate is Kshs20.7 billion. Any Engineer will tell you that Kshs20.7 billion, if added to lease financing, will build a dual carriage road between Busia and Mombasa. Today, Prof. Katama Mkangi would have been alive because he would have been driving on a safer highway. Many Kenyans, great and small, would have been alive, because they would have been driving on a safer highway. We would rather print Supplementary Estimates and bring them to the House to spend money on what is called \"other operating expenses\" than allocate money to what this country needs. I would like to submit that it is time this House put its foot down to ensure that the wealth of this nation is used for development and not for bureaucratic expenditure.We have people who would rather put money into their pockets and businesses than build this nation. The reports we get, as the people of Kenya, indicate that there is tremendous looting going on in the Government at this time. When I was in the Government I went to New Nyanza General Hospital and saw that, that Hospital was improving. But when I went there last weekend, I saw that it had gone back to Nyayo days. We have one nurse to 60 patients at this Hospital. I would like to tell you that from first hand experience. My father was admitted to the amenity ward at the New Nyanza General Hospital in Kisumu with my own nurse to attend to him. The nurse could not sleep in that amenity ward because of mosquitoes. Mosquitoes were harassing patients in the hospital. Instead of spending money to fight mosquitoes at this hospital, we have that money being spent on \"other operating expenses\". What is the Government operating? I would like to see the money that is in these Supplementary Estimates go to genuine expenditures like rehabilitating our hospitals and staffing them to ensure that we have one nurse per patient, as is the case in the Nairobi Hospital, so that our people can truly believe that 40 years after Independence we are fighting poverty, ignorance and disease. If we are going to approve these Supplementary Estimates as they are, then as it is said in the Bible, there is no truth in us and we will be deceiving ourselves. I would like to see submitted Estimates that are in line with what we agreed when I was in the Government, namely to empower the people of Kenya and advance democracy. It is important to note, and I would like this House to note this, that only two Ministries in this Government follow the Economic Recovery Strategy, as we agreed. These Ministries are that of Water and Irrigation and that of Wildlife and Tourism. If you look at the records of the Government, you will see that these are the two Ministries that have recorded progress. Other Ministries have been starved of resources by the Office of the President. It is in that Office where the Anglo Leasing beast reared its ugly head and took away development money from other Government Ministries. Unless we deal with the basic problem in this country, which is stifling development, we April 25, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 641 will not get anywhere. That problem is having an authoritarian system of Government. Unless we deal this issue once and for all, we shall, as the famous philosopher said, be dancing on the tip of a pin as if we are angels when we are not. I am saying this because doctorate students in their final analysis should find out the fundamental cause of a problem. The fundamental cause of our problem is that the Government thinks that if everything is scheduled under the Office of the President, Parliamentarians will be scared enough to pass it. We have come of age in this House, and say once and for all that an authoritarian Presidential system, which is stifling development in this country, must be uprooted from our system of Government, so that democracy can enable development. I would have wanted to see in these Printed Estimates a commitment by the Government not only to renew the constitutional review process but also have a clear time table for its conclusion. The Government should not deceive the people of Kenya forever by establishing commissions and committees to look for ideas, when the people of Kenya know what they want. The people of Kenya want democracy in a Parliamentary system of Government, where the representatives of the people will make decisions and not unelected officials. I would like to submit that, for all intents and purposes, we should have a prime minister in this country. There is an official who is like a God, because he is three things in one. He is the Head of the Public Service, Secretary to the Cabinet and also a Permanent Secretary in the President's Office. Having three positions in the hands of one person is dictatorial. When we sit as a Cabinet the Head of Public Service is the Secretary and does not speak. As soon as he comes out of the Cabinet, he orders everybody in the Government. He writes circulars to Ministers, Assistant Ministers and everybody else and you cannot face him. If we have a de facto prime minister in the form of somebody who is not elected, it is high time we had a de facto prime minister who is elected by the people of Kenya and can answer questions in this House. This is a great anomaly in our system of Government and we know it. Unless we are pretending about democracy, we should accept that democracy is found in a representative government. Democracy reflects the principle of no taxation without representation. I will be abdicating my responsibility, as an hon. Member of Parliament for Kisumu Rural Constituency, if I hand over these Estimates to a non-elected \"Head of Government\" called the Head of Public Service, who will, as soon these Estimates are passed, sit down with his Permanent Secretaries and decide how this money will be spent. That is the truth about this Government, and we have experienced it. If, indeed, there cannot be taxation without representation, then those of us who are elected must be in charge of how this money is spent and should not surrender our responsibilities to the Head of the Public Service."
}