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{
    "id": 48039,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/48039/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 248,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Namwamba",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 108,
        "legal_name": "Ababu Tawfiq Pius Namwamba",
        "slug": "ababu-namwamba"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we must ask ourselves whether it is beneficial to this country to continue having a Cabinet of 42 Ministers, with all the bureaucracy that supports it, and whether it is not time for this country to consider reducing the size of the Cabinet. We need to find ways of cushioning the poor through pro-poor budgeting â budgeting that takes time to prioritise interests of the most vulnerable. We have had instances where huge sums of money are allocated to particular segments of Government operations, like national security. While I appreciate that national security is significant, and that we must spend on securing this country, we also need to balance between security and the welfare of the poor amongst us. If you look at the Supplementary Budget that this House approved last month, you will notice that the NSIS was allocated Kshs5 billion. We must ask whether it would not be prudent to recall part of that money and apply it to cushioning the vulnerable at this time. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is time to move from rhetoric to the practical. We need to stop talking and start acting. It is time to translate motion into action because we have been moving too much and acting too little. It is time to walk the talk and share in the pain and burden of ordinary Kenyans that are looking up to us from the outside of this hallowed Chamber for answers. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is important to appreciate that hunger knows no boundaries of party, tribe or county. This Motion is not about the ODM, the PNU or Ababu Namwamba. It is about the people of Kenya and their divine entitlement to a dignified life as ordained by God and guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic. So, as we debate this Motion, may we debate it, aware that the people of this country are looking up to this House and the leaders of this country to find a way out. This is a time that we must also be bold enough to consider options that may even appear or seem to be unorthodox. This reminds me of the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson when he says: âDo not go where the path leads. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trailâ. We have an opportunity to investigate and consider options that may never have been considered before; options that may seem completely unheard of, but which, nonetheless, would have the capacity and the potential to move us forward. This House today has also the opportunity to look at itself and decide whether we want to be part of the solution or part of the problem. Among the measures that this House must consider, as we discuss this Motion, is sharing in the pain of ordinary Kenyans, as leaders. We have talked about the Government considering reducing the size of the Cabinet and cutting costs wherever and whenever possible. But this hon. House must also be a player in that cost cutting game. This House must consider whether it would not be prudent to cut on the number of foreign travel that this House engages in, right from the Speaker to the Committees of this House. This might just be the time for us to resolve to freeze all non-essential foreign travel and save whatever penny and direct it to support the people who are suffering in this country. I invite this House to consider objectively the necessity of establishing this Committee, so that it can investigate all these options, aware that if we had an Official Opposition in this House, then it would have been its business to offer alternative policy options and solutions for consideration by the people of this country and the Government. But because this is a unique House, a queer arrangement under special circumstances that have put all of us in the Coalition Government, the Back Bench has the responsibility to work with the Government to respond to the most pressing needs of the people of this country. In conclusion, I invite this House that let us think together. Let us walk together. Together, let us find a solution to this challenge. Let us not be afraid to consider even those that we have never thought about. Mr. George Bernard Shaw has written saying âsome people see things that are and ask why, but I dream of things that never were and ask, why notâ. This is the time for us to ask, why not, in terms of all the options that must be considered to find a solution to this problem. It is now my humble pleasure to Move. The Member for Mutito, hon. K. Kilonzo, will kindly second the Motion."
}

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