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{
    "id": 367019,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/367019/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 129,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "June 20, 2013 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 14 Hon. Kipyegon",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker. First I rise to support the Motion as amendment by the great Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. I must thank him for realizing there was some serious discrepancy which needed to be addressed. Hon. Speaker, Sir, I am a Member of Parliament for Emurua Dikirr Constituency, and I believe that the reason why the people elected me to this House is to provide majority representation, although I am also supposed to legislate and oversee. But uppermost to the people who elected me is to provide representation and it will be wrong for me not to represent them, especially on issues that touch on their problems, major among them is the CDF. I must say that we must all agree that problems that are facing our people in the grassroots are the problems of accessing resources. Hon. Speaker, Sir, we cannot concentrate resources in the central Government. We cannot concentrate resources in the county governments. We need to devolve money to the grassroots. I must support one hon. Member who proposed that we need to increase the 2.5 per cent to even 5 per cent, so that it can address problems that people are facing at the grassroots. I also want to say that, when we are looking at this Budget, I think the Chairman should also look deeply into solving problems without necessarily allowing people to solve problems through demonstration, bickering and doing all other things. I will also want to challenge commissions, especially the Salaries and Remuneration Commissions (SRC), which has been so obsessed with solving the problem of the Members of National Assembly and Senate alone and overlooking solving of the problem of teachers. This is because I believe the major problem is not even with us. The serious problem that we are facing right now in this country is with teachers. They need their pay rise and no one seems to be addressing it. We are leaving it to some devices, which cannot even handle recommendations or even the needs of the teachers. I think it is time our commissions prioritized functions, so that they actually deliver according to the needs of Kenyans. Hon. Speaker, Sir, I also want to state that our Government, especially the Executive, should stop engaging in unnecessary expenditure, so that we look at where the problems and the needs of the people are. We want to urge our Government to stop engaging in unnecessary expenditure. Just the other day, instead of debating on matters of national importance, we saw the Government engaging on how to make governors have diplomatic passports, and how to be called “your excellencies”. These are unnecessary things! I think it is time we worked for the people of this country. Why do we need all these tittles? The people of this country know who a governor or a Senator is. They know who a Member of the National Assembly is and who the President is; they do not want these tittles to exist. It is time we looked at all these matters and prioritized where the needs are. Hon. Speaker, Sir, just the other day we were wondering why the Government should engage in travels which we do not even understand; we do not know whether we need them or not. An example is the deportation of Mr. Chinedu. How much money did this country spend in deporting Mr. Chinedu? We are still spending so much money on Kenyans who have been detained in that country. How much money is this Government spending on those Kenyans? I think sometimes we need to look at these things seriously and avoid unnecessary expenditure. Why do we not prioritize where to put our money?"
}