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"id": 255289,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. P. Ahenda",
"speaker_title": "The Member for Kasipul-Kabondo",
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"legal_name": "Paddy Ahenda",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. May, I, first of all, take this opportunity to inform the hon. Members that this is my first time to speak in Parliament and as such, I am not fully conversant with all the Standing Orders of the House. So, if I rattle any snake, please, protect me from the bite. Let me start by thanking the people of Kasipul-Kabondo for overwhelmingly rejecting the candidate of the NARC Government of national disunity and electing me their hon. Member of Parliament. Particularly, I want to thank the women of Kasipul-Kabondo, who braved rains on the election day. Let me add that because of the overwhelming turn out of the women of Kasipul- Kabondo, I am here on that gender parity. Not all those who wear trousers are men. Women too wear trousers. On the same note, not all those who wear skirts are women. In Scotland, men too wear skirts. At this juncture, allow me to pay some glowing tribute to the late former hon. (Member for Kasipul-Kabondo, the late Eng. Peter Owidi, for the time he spent in this House. I am the newest hon. Member of the House and I am more conversant and in touch with the people at the grassroots than most of my colleagues in this House because I have just arrived. The agenda on the ground is that the people of Kenya, overwhelmingly, are now represented in Parliament through the greatest mass movement ever seen in Africa, South of the Sahara and north of the Limpopo through the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). I am here to represent the hon. Members of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). On that note, I would say that I am representing three-quarters of the Kenyan populace, who overwhelmingly rejected the Constitution under the ODM. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, during the Referendum, bribery was rampant and it came from the highest office in the land which bribed us with districts. We were given land and even animals in the parks and birds in the air. But after all these, Kenyans rallied behind the ODM. I am here representing the members of the that mass movement. Yesterday, you must have seem our triumphant athletes arriving and triumphantly adorning the City of Nairobi with their medals. They were very happy for having made Kenyans proud. It is in only this Government that the losers are given gold medals. I have never seen such a scenario anywhere in the world. If Ministers were really worth their salt, the medals they are wearing should be given to us, the winners, on this side. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, allow me to comment on the Presidential Speech with regard to education. The corridors of Jogoo House have become corridors of confusion. I am talking about this as the hon. Member for Kasipul-Kabondo and a Member of the ODM through the LDP. Our education standards have fallen greatly due to the confusion that is at Jogoo House, which is manifested by tribalism. You will be lucky if you do not find that sometimes minutes in meetings in Jogoo House are written in vernacular. This is very strange. To this end, we should allow sanity to prevail upon us in order to reform our education standards. Some years back, the hon. Members of this House had overwhelmingly voted against the 8- 202 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 29, 2006 4-4 system and they wanted to change it. What went wrong? Up to now, we have not changed the system. We should change the 8-4-4 system, so that our students who go abroad are not subjected to some pre-university entry requirements before they join any university. Let me briefly talk about the Constitution. It is rather archaic and surprising that the Government still does not know why Kenyans rejected the Draft Constitution. If they do not know, here is the answer: Kenyans wanted the Bomas Draft Constitution and nothing else. Who is more eminent to make the Constitution that the Government wants to come up with other than the Wanjikus and the Atienos? The Wanjikus and the Atienos are the most eminent people in Kenya to tell us the type of Constitution they want. The Government should not come up with some hand- picked people along the streets of Nairobi and tell us that these are more eminent than the hon. Members of this House. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of security, I would like to say that a hungry stomach knows no law. We should put the food on the table first and then give people laws that will govern our security situation in the country. There is a lot of food insecurity in this country and, therefore, there is no security. There are a number of people who are dying because of poor planning. There is food in other high potential producing areas of our country. However, to move the food from one point to another, you would have to go through red tape before that person in the other part of the country can access the food. We have heard about the insecurity in the North Eastern Province which my friends have complained about. Could we first do something about putting food on the table before we move to other security issues? The people who engage in cattle rustling are actually hungry. They want food and jobs. Could the Government do something to ensure that people get food? In my own constituency, the security situation has gone out of control because of unemployment of the youth. We cannot talk about the youth and good policies if we cannot employ them. I am shocked by this Government because people who retired many years ago are recalled to head the Ministry of Youth Affairs. Could we change our attitudes and ensure that the youth get identity cards (IDs)? If IDs were to be issued now, I can assure you that Kasipul-Kabondo would need to be sub-divided into three constituencies because registration will be overwhelming. Perhaps, this is one reason of keeping us down. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me now talk about agriculture. The people of Kasipul- Kabondo alone are enough to feed the entire Nyanza Province given proper agricultural inputs and planning. However, nobody has come with policies and plans on the ground that can make that potential constituency produce food even for the rest of Kenyans. The growth that the President talked about in his Speech would be meaningless. Kenya is an agricultural country. I remember when I was a child there was a slogan of \"back to the land\". This thing got lost somewhere in between. Could we have a policy that will make people go back to the land and produce enough food for all Kenyans? With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}