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{
    "id": 326256,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/326256/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 410,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mututho",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 97,
        "legal_name": "John Michael Njenga Mututho",
        "slug": "john-mututho"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, in supporting this policy, I want to say that we should now convert the huge population and the high level of elite into a resource. No country can develop unless it has the human resource. Right now, we should focus on what the Prime Minister of Malaysia, when we met him sometimes last year, declared that Kenya can develop. But among the first things that we must do, and which I believe we can do even tonight, is to have good table manners. Every time we meet foreigners and other investors, the first thing we want to talk about is how corrupt we are and how we are going to strengthen our anti-corruption laws. Nobody wants to do business with those kinds of people. We should emulate what this Government has done in the past few years in terms of roads. It has done what other Africans are envying and seeing, what was impossible to do, by keeping quiet, living within your means and organizing yourself. The other aspect is that Kenya has very innovative people. I travelled to Tanzania the other day and landed at the Kilimanjaro International Airport, but there was only one plane there, which we landed in. We stayed for a long time before any other one landed there. Had the airport been in Kisumu, Eldoret or even Wajir and other places, there would have been a lot of commerce there because of the innovativeness of our people. That resource, which boils down to population, should be celebrated; a good hard working people. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, you will remember the Tazara Railway. That is what we are trying to do now from Lamu all the way to Sudan. It will be useless if we do not have these people. So, even as we grow as a population, we should celebrate our people and supplement the Government efforts, having invested heavily and having 85 per cent of us being literate compared to the Philippines who are 65 per cent literate. We are doing pretty well. This dark continent is darker by night. You just need to Google and see that we only built Johannesburg in South Africa, a bit of Nairobi and other places. So, if we could have power distributed to our population so that the night can be used gainfully, either for enjoyment or whatever it is, then the population issue would be sorted out. I think we should give a good listening to our ladies and a kind ear. They are suffering and they have suffered. I said that last time and people seemed worried that they are contributing 52 per cent of the labour. With their contribution in agriculture at 52 per cent, what do they get in return? They get less than one per cent. That is in terms of direct investment to ladies. So, if we could change our philosophy in development so that we are able to acknowledge the large labour and the effort by ladies, the issue of population will become manageable. Issues to do with the number of children will be controlled by the normal supply and demand other than legislative or policy issues. I support this policy wholly and hope to see more improvement on it so that as I have said, it can look at people as a resource and not a liability. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker."
}