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{
    "id": 252532,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/252532/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 325,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kipchumba",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 313,
        "legal_name": "Joseph Kipchumba Lagat",
        "slug": "joseph-lagat"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I want to support this Motion because it is a normal practice. But I would like to make some comments. The Government should prioritise the purchasing of strategic reserves by using the money meant for Emergency Relief and Refugee Assistance. The other day, the Minister for Agriculture said that a substantial amount of food will be brought from outside the country. We could not raise adequate stocks for the reserves because of the low price that was prevailing in the market. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I urge the Ministry of Finance to give adequate finances. It should further direct the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) to increase their prices. That will mop up the stocks that are still held by farmers, who are hoping that the prices will increase. We should do that, instead of losing the much needed foreign exchange to import strategic reserves. We would be better off buying the stocks locally. We will enrich Kenyans. We know the reason why many people prefer to import stocks rather than buy them locally. It is because of the little kick-backs that they get in the process. We would like to discourage that. Secondly, the National Registration Bureau has an additional Kshs84 million. The registration exercise is going on all over the country to ensure that Kenyans get identity cards. The only problem is that most of the personnel involved in the exercise cannot move because of lack of vehicles and fuel. Many hon. Members have to dig deep into their pockets to fuel Government vehicles. That is because they want their constituents to get identity cards, so that they can register as voters. I hope this money will be released quickly to this Ministry which has been disabled in very many aspects in order to enable its personnel to register persons. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to raise a concern on the Government Printer. On many occasions in this House we have raised concerns over the Government Press. There is an additional Kshs639 million. We hoped that this critical department called the Government Press would be able to raise its own revenue. If you visited this critical department, you will realise they have massive equipment. They can print bank notes. They can print anything that we would like to have in this country, but a lot of money has been lost because there are certain facilities which have not been completed. Electrification has not been done and certain critical equipment has not been activated. I think it is important that we need to make this critical department work because I have personally April 25, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 659 visited it and I have realised that once this equipment is activated, we can actually print anything for the East and Central African region and not just for Kenya. I think, in addition, the Government Press can raise a lot of revenue. I do not understand why we would want to be giving it money every year and yet every Ministry has a Vote for printing, which in my understanding, they should be paying the Government Printer so that it can be able to sustain itself and, in effect, probably even raise quite a lot of revenue for this country. I hope that in the next financial year, the Government Press should be able to raise quite a lot of money for this country, and the equipment that is there must be put in use. I have a problem with the Cabinet Office. In as much as I am not quite aware of what it deals with, the Ksh198 million that is allocated for it is quite a lot of money. I wish that this money could be given to famine relief so that Kenyans can be fed. Let us not take advantage of the fact that there are Kenyans who are starving by increasing money for famine relief food when, in effect, in terms of distribution, many Kenyans do not get adequate food. We must invest in logistics. I think the biggest problem that we have in this country is not really the food shortage because there is a lot of it in Western Kenya and North Rift but the movement of that food is the biggest problem in this country. I wish that we can be convinced that no Kenyan will die because of lack of adequate food and that the emergency response must be prompt and befitting. Our earnings must be used to distribute food in the cheapest way possible. The other day it had to take the Head of State to order that the army be made to distribute food to the famine-stricken areas. Why should we wait until the Head of State makes an order? We need to be proactive. Famine is something that we can always project and move adequate food to those areas in good time so that no Kenyan dies because of lack of adequate food. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to say that the fact that there was over-subscription in KenGen shares is not a very good thing as many of the Ministers are saying. In fact, it is bad that many Kenyans are holding a lot of money. Too much liquidity creates a lot of inflation. In as much as there will be low interests, simple economics will tell you that there will be a lot of inflation in this country, which is in fact very bad for the economy. These two must balance. With those few shares, I beg to support."
}