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"id": 252755,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Billow",
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"speaker": {
"id": 260,
"legal_name": "Billow Adan Kerrow",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I was talking about the fact that the Minister for Planning and National Development said that the Ministry of Water and Irrigation has done a good job; yet clearly, there is no money being allocated to that Ministry. We spent billions of shillings supplying water to people in the ASAL areas. That was money spent in a worthless effort to try and provide water through emergency. We need money to be allocated to this Ministry so that they can invest in boreholes. We want to see that in the Supplementary Estimates. There are many parts of this country that are not experiencing rainfall. A good example is Mandera District where I come from. We need more money because I have just been advised that the emergency provision for the Ministry of Water and Irrigation for the district has run out. So, they cannot drill 618 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 20, 2006 any more boreholes. We need more money allocated for that. I wanted to bring out the lack of priorities in the way the Government has provided for these Supplementary Estimates. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Supplementary Estimates contain increases in salaries and allowances for Ministers and Assistant Ministers. The Minister has provided for an additional Kshs240 million to pay for the additional salaries and allowances. We were told that the reason this has been done is largely to encourage these people to come to the House and answer Questions. However, in the last few weeks, we have seen the poor attendance of Ministers and Assistant Ministers in this House. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Ministers are not exercising general direction and control over their Ministries, resulting in loss of billions of shillings through scandals like the Anglo Leasing affair. If Ministers were performing their responsibilities properly, then we would not have had loss of funds through phantom contracts. So, we need to know why the Minister for Finance found it necessary to provide for additional funding to cater for increase in salaries and allowances for Ministers and Assistant Ministers, when Kenyans are starving in many parts of the country. These increases in salaries and allowances have been made Under the Kenya National Assembly Vote. The most prudent thing to do should have been to provide for these increases through the various Ministerial Votes and not through the Kenya National Assembly. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, on the issue of donors, we are aware that donors have suspended large amounts of aid that would have been used for the free primary education and HIV/AIDS control. They have suspended this development assistance because of concerns regarding governance and corruption in this country. Consequently, Kenyans are going to die because of the HIV/AIDS scourge. We are not able to obtain drugs for patients who cannot buy them. This is simply because of lack of good governance. We must be concerned about accountability. This Government must put accountability on top on its agenda. The question of a Permanent Secretary (PS) blaming a Minister, or a Minister blaming his (PS) should not arise. We need to have accountability, so that we can have resources directed to right places. We were told that over Kshs6 billion was spent to purchase food for drought victims in the last six months. This was a statement that was given to this House recently. Is it not strange that when it comes to purchase of relief food like maize, beans and others, it is done by the Office of the President? Why should the Office of the President, specifically the Minister of State for Administration and Internal Security, be in charge of buying relief food, when we have a Government agency that has been established to purchase food? The National Cereals and Produce Board is the one that has the mandate, in law, in this country to buy grains. When His Excellency the President was visiting North Eastern Province at the height of a drought, maize and beans bought by the Office of the President, whose officers do not have expertise in purchasing grains, was found having weevils and other insects. It was of a bad quality. We must understand that there is a Ministry responsible for Special Programmes. There is a Minister and a Permanent Secretary responsible for this Ministry. If we want to enhance accountability we must have the Permanent Secretary in charge of this Ministry as the Accounting Officer in relation to purchase of relief food. In that way, matters related to droughts, famine and purchase of relief food should be handled by the Permanent Secretary and the Ministry which is responsible for that. That will make a lot of sense. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, lastly, I want to conclude my remarks by saying that this additional expenditure of Kshs20 billion, which is re-allocation of money from some Ministries to others, has been done without due regard to priorities for development in this country. We must put money in areas that will generate revenue and development in this country."
}