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"id": 282395,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. M’Mithiaru",
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"speaker": {
"id": 72,
"legal_name": "Ntoitha M'mithiaru",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank you for giving me the opportunity to also contribute on the Presidential Address, in which he exposed national policy and the achievements of the Government. From the word “go”, I would say that the Kibaki Administration has done a good job. Starting from the very beginning, we had a loose coalition arrangement. Given that to date the Government is in force, to say the least, the Government has done beyond expectation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to repeat the issue of the achievement of the Government in terms of free primary education, which my colleagues have spoken about, and emphasize one point, namely, quality education. In as much as we can have so many children going to school, if they do not receive quality education, really, we are not in business. Therefore, I call upon the Government to employ adequate teachers to ensure that we have the required teacher to pupil ratio. As we all know, in terms of the international promises such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we are actually on course on MDG No.2, which is universal primary education. What we are lacking in this area is the quality. So, in as much as the Government has made progress in this area, I would also urge hon. Members of this House to ensure that, through the Budget process, we provide enough funds to ensure that adequate teachers are employed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also have the youth programmes that the Government had introduced. I would say that whereas the programmes are in place, their impact is not being properly felt on the ground. This is because of the administration of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF). In particular, where the youth funds go through financial institutions, you find that the financial institutions have come up with other conditions for the youths to access those funds. This makes the funds inaccessible and for that matter, the youth programmes are not assisted as it is intended. I would also have expected the President to talk more about the marginalized and the disadvantaged youths, especially those who come from ASAL areas. I have in mind the morans who engage in cattle rustling. We have already talked in this House about alternative employment. Those youths engage in cattle rustling because there is no any economic activity for them to undertake. If there were adequate Government programmes, starting from the school level to vocational training, and also to induction of the youth on how to engage in meaningful employment, our youths in the ASAL areas would be moving away from moranism towards an elite society that embraces peaceful activities for them to earn a living. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, still on youth programmes, there are Government officers who are frustrating these programmes. I am aware that the President himself, in one of the national policies, said that when it comes to award of contracts, especially at the district-level, 25 per cent of those awards should go to those youths who are capable of undertaking the programmes but we have people in the name of District Procurement Officers (DPOs) and other officers and engineers in the Kenya Roads Boards (KRB) and the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA), who do not implement that policy. Instead, they are busy looking for contractors who will corruptly undertake the jobs for them to benefit. Therefore, our qualified youths do not get those contracts. In the area of road works at the district level, especially, even very incompetent contractors are given the jobs and when complaints are lodged you find that, in the next year, the same contractors are again brought on site using different company names. So, I would also like to call for investigations to ensure that all those contractors who undertake shoddy jobs are actually blacklisted to ensure that they do not qualify for any other Government jobs. I would also like to commend the President for the infrastructure that we now have in place. This is especially the roads and the Rural Electrification Programme which has gone a long way in lighting Kenya. I personally wish to relay my appreciation because one of the roads that is being constructed right now is called Maili Tatu-Lare- Mutuati Road. This road is in Igembe North which is my constituency. That is really a good job that the Government is doing and our constituents are very happy about this. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the same vigor the Government has undertaken some programmes such as roads, highways and the rural electrification should be reflected in water projects so that Kenya can be self reliant in food production. That is why I also support the earlier speakers who spoke about irrigation to increase food harvest. We should not over-rely on rain fed agriculture. Even as we rely on rain water, sometimes we have a glut of production. The other year Kenyans had to pour milk because there were no adequate facilities to accommodate or ensure that that milk is preserved. For that matter, that milk should be processed and preserved as powder milk so that we have something to use later on and not to import the commodity. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, other times we have had a good harvest of maize but our preserving methods are wanting. Last year, there was a good harvest from Eastern Province but most of that maize was infected with aflatoxin because there were no dryers to ensure that the preservation of that maize was properly done. One area that the President mentioned concerning security but he did not go very far is about the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC). Every Kenyan knows that Kenya is a sovereign nation and yet a section of that country says that Pwani si Kenya . That is not even an issue to talk about. The Government should have taken action immediately. This is because there are mechanisms through which the Government can hear people. They should not go to the streets saying that Pwani si Kenya . That is insurgency and in other extreme terms, it is an area that needs to be properly investigated in case there was any kind of incitement. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, still on the issue of security, whereas we commend the police for the good job they are doing, the Government has done enough to ensure that security arm is properly provided. In my constituency, we have about three police stations namely Mutuati and Lare but they do not have a single police vehicle. I also come from a marginal district which they call an operation area. The response is not immediate whenever there is cattle rustling and the constituents raise alarm when they have been attacked. This is because the police do not have vehicles. I have even been promised that as and when the vehicles are acquired, we shall get one, but it is now three years down the line and that has not been so. So, I again request---"
}