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{
    "id": 470314,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/470314/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 43,
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    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. As I sat on 16th April, 2013 in the Chamber of the Lower House listening to our President, I left the Chamber a very disappointed man. All we heard were long well- couched and crafted statements, very heavy on rhetoric and very short on policy and substance. There are many things and many challenges that this country faces and one would have expected the President in his first Address to the country through the National Assembly and the Senate to outline very clearly and concretely what issues his Government wishes to do for this country and not laying out populist statements that have little regard to implementation possibilities and priorities. You can pick a few examples like I will do. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if this Government is committed to the implementation of devolution, I expected the President to clearly say that his Government was going to sponsor a repeal of the so-called National Government Coordination Act that has put in place persons called county commissioners whom the High Court declared unconstitutional and illegal and whom the Government has arrogantly maintained in place. I expected the President to commit his Government to respecting court decisions and court orders but he never said anything of the sort. That Act is still in place and those commissioners are in place despite the court judgement and we are watching as they not only compete for space but positively undermine the process of devolution by failing to appreciate the presence of Governors and the work they are supposed to do. Where is the commitment to devolution? Mr. Speaker, Sir, this country has developed on services. In fact, for a long time until recently, Kenya was the only most successful non-mineral based economy in Sub- Saharan Africa. We provide services to our neighbours and internal services like banking, insurance, transport and so on. When you hear the President telling Kenyans that he is going to give laptops to Standard One children, it begs a lot of questions. First, everybody knows that in this country, we have a terrible shortage of teachers. The teacher-student ratio in areas like where you come from, which is one of the most neglected parts of this country--- Priority number one is to spend money to hire enough teachers in schools. We have been told that this country requires 60,000 primary school teachers. I am being corrected that it is 80,000. We have very many well-trained young people ready to be employed to teach. You will find that a school with 16 streams has only eight trained teachers posted by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). Secondly, Mr. Speaker, Sir, even with the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF), there are schools in this country where there is dire need for classrooms, desks and basic facilities like drinking water for children. Above all, even if you have to give 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."
}