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"speaker_name": "Mr. G.G. Kariuki",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also wish to join my colleagues in supporting the Motion. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the President's Speech was very encouraging. It captured the economic situation of the country. It shows we are moving from zero growth rate to somewhere. My only concern is whether the economic growth that has been reported is properly distributed. I am aware that some parts of the country can record high economic growth while others are going down. The important thing here is not to pronounce the achievements without April 5, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 355 giving exactly how it has been recorded, whether it is national or regional. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we must give credit where it is due. When the NARC Government took power, economic growth was at zero and now it is at 5 per cent. This Government needs a pat on the back. The security of this country is what should concern Members more than anything else. The way the previous and current governments have handled security leaves a lot to be desired. In my political career, I have never witnessed such infiltration of anti-Government agents serving foreign interests, like it is happening now. I wonder what is happening. This Government's biggest mistake was to allow a man who was in charge of the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) in the previous Government to continue serving for a considerable time, perpetuating the previous philosophy. Politicians are spending a lot of time fighting among themselves along party lines and destroying the country in terms of political stability. Time has come for the new NSIS boss to renew his mandate. Time has come when all Ministers, Assistant Ministers and other Members of Government need to be vetted. We are in a post-modern colonial era. We continue to have these problems because today, unlike the experience we had before, there are so many political meetings being funded by foreign governments or agents. Why is it that most political meetings are being funded? I think Members of Parliament need to realise that with the collapse of the Cold War and Communism, there is a new war which has been taken to all the developing countries by the developed countries. It is like they have political offices manned by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). A lot of money has been spent and is still being spent through NGOs to perpetuate the interests of foreign powers. I think it is the high time we started realising that we are all penetrated to the point that we will find this Government unable to govern. It is well known that Kenya is the centre of international agencies. Therefore, the Government must be vigilant in trying to make sure that all the people who are involved in Government and Parliament, for that matter, are known. It should know who they work for. I think it is a very serious matter to find our country penetrated up to the level of where the Head of State stays. We need to ask ourselves really whether we know what is happening in our society. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when you see Members of Parliament complaining that the Government is not doing \"a\", \"b\", \"c\" and \"d\", all they are doing is to tell the public that the Executive has more power than Parliament. That is not the case. If we, as Members of Parliament, want to compel the Government to do whatever we think is right for this nation, it is within our powers to do so. But we have a lot of excuses. We only talk about what the Government has not done. I think the Government should have gone a little further to demand from this Parliament or its leadership, why we only dealt with 15 Bills out of 25 Bills that were scheduled to be debated during the last Session. I think somebody should take responsibility for this, even if it is the Leader of Government Business, Speaker, or whoever. Whoever is responsible needs to come here and tell us what is happening. This is because we cannot expect Members of Parliament to go to Ministries and ask them to bring Bills before the House. Even if a Bill is published, it is not up to hon. Members to introduce it here unless it is a Private Member's Bill. So, this issue was not received well by the public. The public has been disorganised from this House. We need to ask ourselves whether the speeches and statements we make here are in the interest of the public or whether they are meant to further divide the country on tribal and regional lines. Our Standing Orders should be reviewed with a view to controlling people who make irresponsible statements and get away with them. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Kenyans are basically maturing. If, indeed, our economy has grown by the rate we have been told by the President, then it means that Kenyans have almost forgotten the political bickering that has characterised the leadership of this country and moved on to do their businesses. I must congratulate Kenyans for that resolve. 356 PARLIMENTARY DEBATES April 5, 2006 With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}