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"id": 384123,
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Motion is meant that, one, the Government should not stand by while private mobile telephone companies are making huge profits. The Government having provided the infrastructure, which it is best placed to do, should then make sure that these mobile telephone companies use this infrastructure, but pay for it in a pro rata basis; on the basis of the profit that they make. That is a good partnership between the Government and the private sector. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is important that we extend telephone or information access to the whole nation. This is because that will help the economy. We shall take banking to the rural areas. It will also help in investment, because people in the rural areas will have information on where to invest or buy shares and so on. It will also help in emergency. In the area of health, for example, I have always said – and I brought up this policy when I was the Minister for Medical Services – that we should have national ambulatory and emergency services; where you do not need to have an ambulance sitting in front of every health facility. But you have a number that you can call when you need an ambulance and it will be sent where you are. It does not matter whether that ambulance is from the Government or private sector, but it will be available in the national grid to serve the people, provided that you have access to it through telephony. Mr. Speaker, Sir, secondly, in doing so, we will have a national fund that pays for these national ambulatory and emergency services. That national fund can be nothing else other than a universal health insurance scheme, which will integrate everything. So, on the basis of having access to information which this Motion is aiming at, a lot of other things will happen in the nation. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other thing is market access. We have seen movies and documentaries when we are flying in the planes, on how rural women in African countries with access to mobile telephony can know what the price of vegetables is. A woman in Kisumu will know what the price of vegetables are in Nakuru and decide to puts her vegetables in a matatu, to be sold in Nakuru, for example, and get good money. That money will be sent to her through M-pesa. So, access to mobile telephony will actually really improve access to markets. That is something that I think this Motion has a spirit of serving, and we should not throw the baby away with the bath water. I think that there is a good spirit in this Motion that we should preserve. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if I were the Mover of the Motion, I would urge somebody to move an amendment which removes the last part, as Sen. Khaniri and Sen. Khalwale proposed. I think that the last part urging county governments to provide budgets is a double-kill. County governments need not do this. Once the national Government fulfils its responsibility, one, of ensuring that Kenyans have a right to information and, two, that this right is served by the Government creating the necessary infrastructure. We do not need to tax county governments; putting the scarce money that they have to this company. In any case, any mobile telephony that wants to invest in a county can do so. If you know that Kisumu County, for example, has potential telephone users who are not served by existing telephone companies, you can come to Kisumu and make a proposal to the Governor that you want to set up a mobile telephone company and that you can do it. In order to penetrate, you cannot charge higher than what is available. As a business person, you will get your business and do it. But I think that my colleague, Sen. Musila, went a little bit too far to ask for county governments to put a budget for this. It is enough 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."
}