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"id": 472219,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Kajwang",
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"legal_name": "Gerald Otieno Kajwang",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. This is a progressive Bill because it helps us in the implementation of the Constitution. That is why all of us support it. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, procurement has been a serious problem in this country, especially because corruption flows from it. In fact, if you talk about corruption, you are talking about procurement. Secondly, procurement has been dominated by a few people or clubs in this country, to the exclusion of others; to the extent that the gap between those who make a lot of money and those who are making nothing widens every day. This is not good for societal wellbeing. I think that this Bill is taking us somewhere. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, first, there are no jobs to go round. So, the young people must create jobs themselves. They can only create jobs in this procurement world, which is largely controlled by the Government. In fact, if you look at the total business that goes round in the country, it is either in the national Government, county governments or Government-owned parastatals. So, we must find a way in which we will become inclusive, so that we do not exclude our youth and women forever out of business. So, this is a good proposal that we have here and we should support it. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to say a few things that will make it realistic. The other day, I saw an advert from a county government that was saying: “This one is for everybody; this one is for women; this is one for people with disability; and, this one is for youth.” In other words, there is competition amongst the youth for whatever they have been assigned. I do not know whether that is how this was thought out, but I saw it in one of the adverts. Somebody will have to do a lot of work to check or audit whether the entity that was procuring actually shared out these things according to the provisions of this Act. When it was said popularly “30 per cent” we did not have a way of auditing that. When you now say in law “30 per cent”, then it must be audited. It is not small money. If Kenya were to procure goods and services worth Kshs500 billion, we are talking of setting aside Kshs150 billion worth of goods and services for the youth. These are youth who, probably, have not done business, because they were excluded before. They do not have a track record, bank accounts, title deeds, collateral and experience. Of course, this is a good starting point. However, if you were to audit at the end the year and find that the young people who were given the business did not actually procure those services, because they did not have resources, it would be a sorry thing. I do not know who will be punished for it. In my own county, the county executives or the people popularly known as ”ministers” started this earlier. The young people who were given roads to repair, first of all, did not even have the money to do so. So, you are given a job and a Local Purchase Order (LPO) and told: “Go and supply.” However, you cannot supply because you do not have money and if you go to a bank and you have never banked before, you will not get money. The bank will tell you: “We cannot give you money because we do not know you.” Eventually, of 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."
}