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"id": 435932,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/435932/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Nyenze",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 1987,
"legal_name": "Francis Mwanzia Nyenze (Deceased)",
"slug": "francis-mwanzia-nyenze"
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"content": "understood that if they integrate, something will happen. That feeling should disappear. So, this Bill is a good one because first, it will create a uniform curriculum in all the five countries; the partner states and it will help Africans to know each other’s culture and languages and so forth. This Bill also encourages the teaching and speaking of English and Kiswahili. Some of the countries in the region like Burundi and to some extent Rwanda never had English as their official language. That is changing because this Bill encourages the citizens of these states to speak English and Kiswahili and that will help them integrate. I just want to say, we should not allow a few individuals who do not want citizens to integrate, for their own personal good. There are those who want to keep these countries separate because once we unite, there will be common laws and trade. There will be more scrutiny and some of the underhand deals will not be possible any more. So, because of standardization of even the legal services, some of the people who are involved in funny deals or shoddy deals will not support this integration. I think it is in the best interest of Kenyans to support the three Bills. I also want to say that the East African Community (EAC) collapsed because of three main issues. There may have been other issues, but one was political, economic and social. I will not deal with all the others, but Kenya got the biggest blame for the collapse of EAC. Let us be the first ones because we will benefit more than these other countries when we integrate with them. Out of these countries, we have noticed that Kenya has more trained personnel, even lawyers, co-operative officers and teachers. It is no wonder that after we train our Kenyans, most of them go to Europe, others to South Africa and so forth. It is a big loss to our revenue. But if we integrate, we will send our trained cadre to Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. In these countries, they do not have that level of training and Kenya stands to benefit. So, without much ado and without taking a lot of time, I want to say there is nothing as good as supporting the integration of EAC because the dream of growing this economy at double digits will come to fruition. We will succeed only if we do not stand alone as a country, but if we integrate. The President of this country is the current Chair. We stand to gain. Let us support it because that is the only way for Kenya to grow. If you look at our economy in East African region, it is growing the slowest. The economy of Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania is growing faster than Kenya’s and for us to catch up, this is the only opportunity that has come up. So, this Committee has done a good job, they have read through the three Bills and this is the only way forward. It will help the Jubilee Government to realize its dreams because most of the projects that the Jubilee Government promised Kenyans; like the laptops, the irrigation of one million acres and even the LAPSSET project have collapsed. Everything has collapsed. So, this is a window now that this Committee has given to the Jubilee Government. Let both sides of the House support because this is what will move the country forward. Before I sit down, I just want to say that insecurity has been a big problem in this country. I did stand in this House and say that I support the Government’s move to flush out terrorists from within, and I do not regret. If we integrate, criminals will have nowhere to run to. If a car is stolen here in Kenya, you find it in Tanzania or in a neighbouring country and vice versa. This integration will stop all that and we will be one people. We will be a big economy commanding around 100 million people and everybody will want to talk business with us. We will grow our economy, create wealth for everybody and things like The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}