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{
"id": 457001,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/457001/?format=api",
"text_counter": 173,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kang’ata",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 1826,
"legal_name": "Irungu Kang'ata",
"slug": "irungu-kangata"
},
"content": "feet was when I brought an issue pertaining to Kenneth Stanley Njindo Matiba. He appears to be recognised nationally; he did something very special for this country. I brought a petition on this and at times, when you bring a petition, it does not have direct results. However, when you crystallize something in a Bill like this one, it goes without saying that if it passed it is likely that Mr. Matiba will be recognised as a hero. He may be funded and get something and the people of Kiharu will be very happy. On the other hand, I have some reservations pertaining to this Bill. First, is it value for our money? In a country that is as poor as Kenya, in my opinion, every shilling that is expended by the Treasury should go towards economic development. Our GDP per capital is Kshs1000 and this is a very poor country. Therefore, every shilling that is expended by the Treasury should go towards economic growth and deal with issues of unemployment. I am wondering whether setting up an authority and giving it funds just to give out money to some hereos when we have so many orphans, widows and many roads that are not tarmacked, is value for money. I do not know. Maybe we can discuss and see whether it makes sense, particularly taking into account the level of our development. Some people may say that we have heroes, but others may argue that we do not have. Remember Jomo Kenyatta said very clearly “this new country, which is now being given independence by the white man, has challenges of poverty, disease and ignorance that we must tackle”. Today, we have not been able to tackle these challenges. Can we then say that we have heroes? In my opinion, we have a tendency in this country to glorify heroes in the political sphere, people who have done something in politics. That is good. But again, life has three dimensions. We have the social, economic and political aspects of life. The real hero of Kenya will be the person who will emancipate our people from poverty; up to now, no one has come up with that idea. We are still backwards. If you were to ask me who is the greatest hero in my life worldwide, I would say a person like Deng Ziao Ping of China. In a country of 1 billion plus people, he came up with ideas and the country has pulled about 600 million people from poverty within a time span of 20 years. That is real heroism. You are able to come up with ideas, transform a nation from a backward society to a society that is cruising towards becoming a super power. For us here in Kenya, we look at people from a political point of view and look at a person who probably brought forth a certain issue and led people in a certain demonstration. That is not the real heroism. The real heroism is to emancipate our people from poverty. If this money was to go to widows and the jobless youth, I would be very happy. I am fearing a situation where the people who will be administering this Fund, for instance, the Authority, may now start demanding to be paid Kshs1 million per sitting. Again, it becomes something to guzzle our meagre resources in this country. Be that as it may, we must start focusing on economic development. If there is a way that every shilling that is expended by the Treasury can go towards economic emancipation, that will be real heroism, rather engage in these other issues which are related to political heroism. On that note, I rest my case. 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."
}