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"content": "the United States (US) and why it went beyond each State to the federal level. But that is another thing. That is one point that I want to make. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the second point that I want to make is that it is in the interest of the national Government to invest in the infrastructure or what has been called in this House today, the basic backbone for providing mobile telephony. Why is it the interest of the national Government? It is because our own Constitution says that every Kenyan has a right to information. Kenyans are not going to have a right to information if there is no infrastructure to provide this information, and the Government cannot sit by and expect just the private sector to provide this infrastructure. The private sector can provide the services, but the basic backbone and infrastructure should be provided by the Government. Indeed, that is why the cable network that is being laid out in the country was done by the Government, all the way from wherever it came from, that is West Africa or around the Cape of Good Hope to this place. That is a public investment. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the next thing that the Government should do is that when the private telephone companies make use of this basic infrastructure, then they should pay the Government on a pro rata basis depending on how much profit they make. At the moment, the huge profits that these mobile telephone companies make, like Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale said, I have a feeling that we, as consumers, are not getting back what we have invested. This is because actually when we pay for consuming mobile telephony, we are also investing because without us they would not be there. Therefore, when they make this profit, surely, it should be used to build infrastructure. I think that is why that fund Sen. Khaniri was talking about was established. But my feeling is that, that fund has not been effectively implemented, hence the need for the policy that Sen. Musila is talking about. Law can exist, but if there is no proper policy framework to make sure that the law is implemented in the interest of the nation, the law will only exist in books. For example, we have these books here with so many laws here, but I have said very many times that if you look at all the laws in these books, you may find that some of them have never even been implemented in the last donkey years. This is because the policy or interest to implement them is not there. So, I think that Sen. Musila is right. The law may be there, but we need a very vigorous policy framework to ensure that it is implemented. I think that the policy framework exists in seeking partnership with the private sector, not so much because the Government and private sector must go into a business together or both invest in production. But the Government can do something like providing infrastructure and agree with the private companies on exactly what their contribution is to that, or what they pay when they use that infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, Sir, at the moment, I think that the telephone companies are actually taking the Government for a ride. The infrastructure that had been provided by the Government, like this cable and so on, I do not think that we are getting as much from it as we should, as a Government. That should be looked into. Now, once the Government then gets that money, the issues that Sen. Khalwale is raising are very pertinent, in terms of how the money that the Government gets is used. Before we know how this money is used, you cannot ask taxpayers to pay more money to the Government. So, I think that this Motion is raising very pertinent issues. But we must address these pertinent issues in the spirit in which the Motion is meant. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}