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    "id": 386392,
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    "content": "are employed in KVM, have been given notice that their employment will be terminated in the next one month. These are 450 individuals who earn their daily living from this factory. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if we speed up devolution and take it to the counties, we are going to improve the livelihoods of our farms. My county is one of the largest producers of coffee and tea. The farmers of Kiambu have suffered for a long time because of inadequate compensation for their input and what they get after they sell the produce. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I wish to acknowledge that, indeed, devolution taken faster to the counties will be a sign of recognition and acknowledgement of innovation amongst our young people. This will also help to fight crime which is prevalent in our youth. Of late, there has been a story running in the dailies of a young man from my county of Kiambu who assembled a helicopter and has been waiting to fly it albeit he has not been able to get the permission. I dare say that we need to support the innovation and minds of such young people, so that we can take them to places and other countries or towns where they can harness and improve on that kind of technology. Mr. Speaker, Sir, Kiambu County has three major water towers which serve the City of Nairobi. Indeed, more than 50 per cent of the water consumed in Nairobi comes from Kiambu County. If devolution is taken faster and more rapidly to the counties, it will see a sharing of resources and equitable compensation for such resources. Indeed, that would see my county benefiting from the water that we give to Nairobi. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I will very briefly mention just a small issue on the laptops. About two months ago, as I was walking with my daughter to a supermarket, after we crossed the road, she asked me: “Daddy, are you sure that President Uhuru Kenyatta is going to give us laptops when he becomes President?” I looked at my daughter in the eye and told her on behalf of the President: “Yes, he will.” Last week, as I woke up on a Sunday morning and while descending the staircase to my sitting room, I found a big argument amongst my three children. Each one of them was looking at the newspaper that they had opened before I read and were looking at different laptops. They were each saying: “This is mine!” I asked them: “What is it?” They replied: “These are the laptops that we were promised.” That is the kind of excitement which this promise about laptops to all children has elicited amongst the young people. I dare say that it will be wrong for this House to be the prophet of doom, that is going to water down this excitement that is with our children now; that, indeed, they will now be able to savor the technology that is being savored by other children all over the world. This country is not short of examples of what this kind of innovation can do. It is not short of examples of what has happened to our young people when they have been exposed to this technology. Let me remind this House that the earthmoving technology of money transfer called M-Pesa was invented in Kenya by a student. Why would we want to prevent future innovations like M-Pesa from our children by saying that we dare not go for their laptops? I say this because we have already promised that we are going to build an ICT City here in Kenya. I, therefore, think 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."
}