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"id": 3967,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank Dr. Otichilo for bringing this Motion to this House at this time. This Motion says in part that: “This House is urging the Executive arm of the Government to urgently formulate a Geo-Information Policy and establish a secretariat that will co-ordinate the development of a web based special data infrastructure at both national and county level in order to allow users to readily have access to data and information with line Article 35 of the Constitution.” Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the first point I want to make in support of this Motion is that after the passing of the new Constitution, things have changed in this country. There are things that need legislative and administrative changes. The legislative changes that we have started in this House are many. They are ongoing. However, in terms of the administrative changes to make this Constitution a reality, the Executive arm of Government has been lagging behind. It has not shown the commitment that is required to make sure that this Constitution becomes a reality. I say so because Article 35 has clearly stated that access to information is now a right for every Kenya citizen who is here or living outside Kenya. However, in terms of making this a reality, the Executive arm of Government has not moved with haste. Therefore, this House through this Motion has made yet another attempt at urging the Government to try and do what it needs to do to make sure that information is available to the Kenyan people. Whenever we try to computerize, make information available and bring transparency, the Government has always been reluctant in terms of implementation. A very good example is the IFMIS system of payment and transfer of funds within Government systems. If I recollect correctly, this system was purchased by the Government many years ago. In fact, it was purchased some time in 2002. However, it has taken the Government many years to try and implement this system. Why? The reasons are obvious. It was supposed to clear of any corruption or leakages when it came to transferring Government funds from one place to another. There were some officers within the Executive arm of Government who resisted this system year in, year out. They resisted it even after the Government had purchased it. They made sure that payments remained manual as possible. They did not want it to be computerized. The IFMIS started in Uganda many years before it came to Kenya. When it was working in Kenya, there were very many unhappy people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this GIS that we want to put in place now to make a reality of Article 35, we know is something the Executive arm of Government knows it should be in place. The Syokimau debacle could never have happened if this system was in place. Any person who bothered to check in this system would have known whether this land was available for sale or not. They would have found out whether these pieces of lands were available for sale or not, before they purchased them. They would have known whether they were meant for industrial or residential development. All this information would have been there if the Government was committed to having this system in place. It is not that the Government of Kenya does not know that this thing should be there. However, they did not want it to be there. Through this Motion by hon. Otichilo, this Parliament is stating the obvious that the Government needs to put information in place, particularly so, at the county level. We, who, come from various counties, particularly the ones that are far flung, have issues attracting investments. When this system is in place, any investor, not only outside, but I am talking about specific investors from within the country, will feel free to come to our counties and invest funds if this information is in the Government system. There is a lot of money in this country. However, there is very little information. When Safaricom put its Initial Public Offer (IPO) for purchase of shares, there was over- subscription. This and other IPOs that came afterwards showed that in this country there is a lot of money. This money can be invested. However, our people do not have enough information. Until the Vision 2030 came into place, some of our counties were known only negatively. People know counties from the reports that newspapers give. Investors also know the counties from the information that they receive from newspaper accounts. As we all know, newspaper accounts will only report what is sensational. They will not say investors are required, for example, to nurture crocodiles in Tana River County. They will not tell you to establish a crocodile industry that will process crocodile meat. However, they will report consistently how the people are being eaten by crocodiles. They will not tell you about the benefits that can be accrued from the crocodiles in Turkana County. Instead they will report about wars in Turkana County. Some of these counties have a lot of potential in terms of development. However, this information is not available in the Government systems. It is not doing anything! Even when we passed the Constitution and said in Article 35 that information is supposed to be available, the Executive arm of the Government is not doing anything in that direction. In fact, it is very defensive. Every time you want information, even if you are an investor, you are not given correct information. So, from the county level, we want this Motion to pass. We really and sincerely want the Government to do something about putting proper information about some of these areas wherever we come from. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the secretariat should be established with the passing of this Motion which I want to urge this House to pass. This secretariat will go a long way towards making this a reality. We know that already there is an ICT secretariat in Kenya. If they would not want to set up a new secretariat for the purposes of this Article 35, then they must accommodate what we want in this particular Motion. Information is power. Many countries have developed because of information. Our nation lags behind because of lack of information. Even Kenyans who would have sold potatoes so much in Tana River County, they cannot because they do not know what is lacking or available there. By the passage of this Motion, this House will want the Executive arm of the Government to take the first step forward."
}