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{
    "id": 429419,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/429419/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 245,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ganya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 18,
        "legal_name": "Francis Chachu Ganya",
        "slug": "francis-ganya"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I want to add my voice to the debate on the Presidential Address. For sure he has fulfilled his constitutional obligation. I would like to talk specifically about economic empowerment. The Jubilee administration has always committed itself to the Uwezo Fund in order to empower youth and women all over the country. This so far has been a dream. A few things have been done. We have asked questions in this House and Uwezo Fund is yet to be rolled out. The Jubilee Government is one year down the road, yet our youth and women are yet to benefit from this major support that will enable Kenyans to move out of poverty. As they roll out this programme all over the nation, they should really increase efforts in capacity building of our men and youth, so that they know how to save, borrow and create wealth. This will enable our country grow economically. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the President addressed the issue of poaching of elephants and rhinos in passing. In my view, he could have done more. This country today is leading on earth in terms of trafficking of ivory and rhino horns. We are losing our heritage. Our wildlife is an important sector, and a major revenue earner for this nation. The Government is not doing enough. The President should lead from the front and save our heritage. While he mentioned the need for us to face the poaching crisis, he fell short of declaring it a national disaster. He failed to tell us exactly what he was going to do in terms of how to deal with the international cartel, which is full of terrorists who are busy killing and maiming our national heritage. It is high time this Government implemented fully the law that we passed in this House; the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act. It is high time this Government appointed a substantive Director-General for the KWS. We need an overhaul of that State corporation in terms of appointing new directors as envisaged in the new law as well as resourcing KWS, so that it is able to fight this international cartel, which is killing our elephants and rhinos. These cartels are known. We are talking about five or eight people and this Government can do a lot, and has the capacity to arrest these people. On devolution, the President should know that he is not doing us a favour; this is our constitutional right and he has a constitutional obligation to ensure that devolution is in place. While the President argued that he has increased the revenues to the counties from 15 per cent to 32 per cent, that is debatable. He could raise it even to 40 per cent in the next financial year. The Government should devolve as many functions as possible to the counties and even delegate some. For example, I do not think the Government should be in the business of providing primary education. On food security, he did not mention the need to put large pieces of land under irrigation."
}