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"content": "development in Turkana, so that there are monies available in the office of the Turkana treasury for recurrent expenditure, for them to do the usual corrupt deals that they do. Why do I say this? I say this because if you look at page 9, under finance and planning, where you find treasury, the county government, in its wisdom, wanted only Kshs800 million to be available at the treasury. But if you look at the altered one, the county government has now increased that from Kshs800 million to Kshs1.4 billion. This means that somebody wants easy money next to him, which he can manipulate and take it one way or another. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to congratulate the Speaker, Madam Kioko, who is in charge of the Committee and the Controller of Budget, Agnes Odhiambo, for doing what she has done. These findings go a long way in disapproving some of the people who have spoken on the role of the Senate. There is a Member of Parliament called Kang’ata, another one called Washiali from Kakamega and the former Member for Nyandarua, hon. Kioni, who was the running mate for my presidential candidate in the United Democratic Front (UDF). All of them, in their ignorance, have said that the Senate is not necessary and can only be sitting once in a year to make a deliberation on revenue division and allocation and then go away. Some have even said that it is not necessary and some have said the job of the Senate can be done by the National Assembly. I hope that since this is the first incident to emerge, they will have the noble hearts to reconsider speaking from points of ignorance and realize that the Senate must continuously be there to do what we are doing this afternoon. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is for this reason that today I want to support this and remind those who think that they will kill the Senate, that there is one man they need to go and read around about. He was a very wealthy man and one of the first black people to have an aircraft and own horses, but he was killed because he was fighting for the poor. His name was Josiah Mwangi Kariuki. They should ask themselves: How could such a rich and wealthy person have been so passionate about the interests of the poor? It is in the same House as those ones who are proposing that the Senate is not relevant, where J. M. sat when some people decided that they should kill devolution and, therefore, the Senate. There is a nice book called “ An End to Poverty ” which was written by the World Bank Adviser to Kofi Annan, who believes that it is possible, in our lifetime, for us to end poverty. It is amazing that it has escaped all of us that the people who promote poverty in third world countries are we, the politicians, accountants and lawyers. These are the people who are in charge of the contracts. They draft contracts, do procurement and the politicians make the big decisions. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if only we in the third world could remember that it does not add any food on your table as a rich man, for your five year old daughter to eat from a table of opulence, when a child in Turkana, her age mate, is sleeping on an empty stomach with hunger pangs. We, as leaders of this country, must make this commitment, so as to see an end to poverty in our lifetime. It is possible because we are lucky that we come from one of the richest countries in the world. Kenya is today behind Singapore. What a shame. In 1963 when we got Independence at the same time, Singapore, a tiny little thing of 600 square kilometres with a tiny population of five million people, fewer than the number of Luhyas living in the whole of this country, is now ahead of Kenya. It 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."
}