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"speaker_name": "Mr. Kimeto",
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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for this opportunity. The Presidential Speech can assist this country if it could be implemented. In his Speech, 212 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 29, 2006 the President said that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of this country has grown while people in the rural areas are dying because of famine. What can we do to ensure that this growth of the GDP reaches the village so that villagers do not die of hunger? Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Minister for Sports, Mr. Kamanda, welcomed the athletes who returned from Australia, and that is the only way we can motivate our sportsmen and women. If those in authority could exploit the talents in the youth, then this country will be marvelled by others. If you appreciate what the youth do, like hon. Kamanda did by showing them respect, sooner or later, we will have youth with diverse knowledge in different activities which will be appreciated worldwide. We need to find ways of exploiting the talents of our growing youth. This country has a population of 33 million people. Out of this, about 20 million are youth but they are jobless. They are useful and their talents should be tapped. We should use money from the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) to help them. But we cannot use money from the CDF to help the youth because it is not allowed by law. Why do we not do away with this law to allow money from the CDF to be used to assist the youth in developing this country? If we do not do that, the same youth will soon vote out the Government. Most of the youth have kept their degrees at home and are idle. What is the President and leaders of this country doing to help the youth? This Government promised Kenyans that they were going to create 500,000 jobs each year. What are they doing to achieve this goal? It is simple because if the Government implements what hon. Members say in this House, this country can employ more than one million or even three million people if they allocate some money in the Budget for the youth in the same way we are allocating money for the CDF. Mr. Speaker, Sir, last year, we passed a Motion where the funds from the Fuel Levy Fund should go directly to the District Roads Board. But up to now, this has not been implemented to enable the Kenya Roads Board to disburse the money directly to the constituencies. This would have enabled hon. Members to employ some youths to do the roads and bridges. This would have also helped to create over 2 million jobs. If the money can go directly to the constituencies and we allow hon. Members to use it to the best of their ability, sooner or later, very many people would have been employed. The President would then only have asked every hon. Member what they have done with the monies given to them. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we should implement what we have adopted in this House. We do not want to be passing Bills and Motions here yet they are not being implemented. Agriculture is the backbone of this country. I wonder when we say that Kenya is an agricultural country yet people in North Eastern Province are dying of hunger. We should ask ourselves: If Mr. Kimeto was the President, would people surely die in this country when we are an agricultural country? Why do people have to die in this country? Why do we spend money to import food instead of spending Kshs4 billion right now on every constituency so that they can produce enough food for domestic consumption? Why does the Head of State have to wait until some people die of hunger? The Minister for Agriculture should be here to listen to us! We should teach these Ministers on the way forward and how to assist Kenyans! We should not allow people to die of hunger in this country. If we look at Egypt, the Egyptians are using barrier lakes to grow wheat in their own country using water from Lake Victoria. Why do we not block the same rivers to produce food before that water reaches Egypt? This will enable Kenyans to live better lives. Mr. Speaker, Sir, recently, the Ministry of Health disbursed money to districts and it was misused by the Medical Officers of Health (MOHs). Why do we not disburse the money directly to the constituencies and allow hon. Members to hold consultations with the management committees of the health centres and dispensaries on how to use it properly? This Government knows how to tax its citizens, but it does not know how to serve them. That way, every Kenyan will soon have access to good health care. March 29, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 213 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to talk about the constant complaints against traffic policemen who demand for kitu kidogo. You can create a lot of jobs in this country if only you could have traffic policemen on the roads with magistrate courts nearby. The moment a person is arrested for committing a traffic offence, he should be charged immediately. Why should the police lock up persons for too long in cells just because they have committed traffic offences on the road? By the time these offenders are charged in court, the Government has already spent a lot of money on them. Why can the Government not employ some more magistrates? There are too few magistrates in this country to handle cases affecting the 33 million people in this country. There must be a magistrate in every traffic police station. In other districts there are no judges. For, example, in Bomet District, there are no judges. There is no High Court in Kericho District. Why do you not employ more judges so that cases can be expedited and Kenyans served well? There are so many Law graduates from our universities, but they have not been employed. Why can the Government not employ them? The moment you ensure that there are enough magistrates to handle traffic offences, things will run smoothly the way this Government intends them to run. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to oppose."
}