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"id": 255778,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. ole Metito",
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"legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this Motion. First of all, I would like to join my colleagues in congratulating His Excellency the President for delivering a very focused Address that outlined the public policies of his Government in this financial year. One of the issues that was serious when we were on Recess, and is still serious, is the famine facing this country. I would like to thank the Government for doing a lot in supplying food and water to famine-stricken areas. But the question we will have to ask ourselves as leaders of this country is: For how long will some of our areas rely on relief food? In my view, 60 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 23 March, 2006 rain failure is not the only cause of famine in our country. I think that we have to do a lot in land utilisation. We need to use our resources properly, because there are some areas where, if resources are utilised properly, frequent famine can actually be avoided. For instance, in areas that are good in agriculture we have to allocate resources properly and do irrigation. There will be no famine in those areas if this is done. We have to make sure that, through allocation of resources, there is water in those areas. The people of this country are hard working and can irrigate those areas. They can produce enough food for themselves and, in that way, we can avoid reliance on relief food year in, year out. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the pastoral areas, what we need to do is to ensure that these areas have adequate water. His Excellency the President said in his Address that last year the Government sunk 162 boreholes. I think if those boreholes were evenly distributed to semi-arid districts in this country, then, this would assist pastoralists and their livestock. The Government has to come out very clearly and find ways and means of assisting the pastoralists. Every time there is severe drought in this country, we supply seeds to farmers when it rains. That is a way of restoring to them what they lost. My concern is how we assist the pastoralists who lose 70 to 80 per cent of their animals. I think the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development should come up with a programme of restocking livestock where pastoralists lose it. Mr. Speaker Sir, the other issue is about the youth. Seventy-two per cent of the population of this country is made up of people who are below 30 years of age. That shows that it is only 28 per cent of the population which is benefiting from the resources of this country. I think it is high time that the youth of this country are remembered in the distribution of our resources. When we look at the appointments of Government officials, such as those of Permanent Secretaries or any other, you do not see anyone below 30 years of age being appointed, yet we say that the youth make up 72 per cent of our population. It has become a tradition that in any job advertisement, age is a factor. Experience of over five years is required, and one must be over 35 years of age, yet we say that we are taking care of our youth in this country. One cannot get experience before they get a job. It should not be a prerequisite that one has to be 30 so as to get a job in this country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I wish to comment on our performance. Just as my colleagues have said, it was below par. Out of the 25 Bills presented to this House, only ten were passed; seven of them were assented to and three returned. However, as much as we may blame the poor performance to politicking, as some people may say, I think we have our rules and procedures to blame because we have only two full days a week to work. We work on Tuesday afternoons, the whole of Wednesday, and Thursday afternoon. It is high time that this House changed its own rules and procedures, so as to allow us to work full time for Kenyans. Even if it means working for three days in a week, I think the days we work have to be full. We should start work at 9.00 a.m and close at 6.30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. If we did that, it would assist us in improving our performance. I would like to comment on corruption. I think there is no hon. Member here who supports corruption. However, I would like to emphasise one point; that, we should not politicise the fight against corruption. What has been happening of late is that when someone is charged with corruption or abuse of office, we tend to agree with the decision, but when it is someone else, we disagree by saying that a wrong decision has been taken. If all hon. Members in this House were to unite in the fight against corruption, that would allow all the cases to be investigated equally and allow the Judiciary to have its independence, because no one is guilty unless proven guilty. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I wish to request hon. Members of this House to provide the leadership we were elected to provide and respect all the institutions. I beg to support."
}