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{
    "id": 48049,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/48049/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 258,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. C. Kilonzo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 46,
        "legal_name": "Charles Mutavi Kilonzo",
        "slug": "charles-kilonzo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. This Motion that resolves to establish this Committee has come at the right time. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, if our Government was efficient and committed, we would not have gone this way. However, this Government has proved on very many occasions that it lacks the commitment to do anything. This Government lacks the Commitment to even settle the IDPs, fight crime, defend its borders and reduce the cost of fuel and living. To show that this Government lacks commitment, let us see what the Government has done today. The leader of the Opposition, Dr. Besigye, from the neighbouring country, Uganda, who is our good brother, after having fought for his citizens to try and address the same problem we face in this country, and that is, the cost of living--- Dr. Besigye decided that as a protest, they would walk to work, but the Government of Uganda told him: “You cannot walk to work. You will need a permit from the police to walk to work.” However, what has shocked us today is that the Kenyan Government has denied Dr. Besigye his right to go home. I want to understand under what law our Government can detain Dr. Besigye and tell him that he cannot go back to Uganda. I am very well connected. I am told that this Government is returning a favour to Museveni, so that Dr. Besigye does not continue with demonstrations tomorrow on the cost of living in Uganda. So, he requested this Government to continue detaining this brother here a little bit. I am trying to figure out under what law they can detain Dr. Besigye. This is lack of commitment. If this Government has joined President Museveni to fight the Opposition there, which is fighting to reduce the cost of living, then is the same Kenyan Government expected to deliver to its own people when it comes to issues of cost of living? Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, that is only one area that shows the Government’s lack of commitment. When this House tried to introduce price controls, you know which way the Government went. When this Parliament raised the issue of cost of fuel and why there is a shortage of fuel in this country, we were given a very interesting answer. We were told that, in fact, there is no shortage of fuel. We were told that there is a lot of fuel in the terminals or depots. But the Government has no idea how to get that fuel into the petrol stations. This is the same story we have been told about maize. Every time there is famine in Ukambani where I come from, the Government tells us there is a lot of maize in Kitale. However, they do not know how to transport that maize to Ukambani. All these factors are the ones which are making the cost of living in this country to become unbearable. Basically, it is the inability to plan. If there is a Government which is huge in size, it is this Government. It has over 90 Ministers and Assistant Ministers. The expenditure by the Executive to run the Government is unbearable. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, do you know that when a Kenyan Minister or Permanent Secretary is flying from Nairobi to Mombasa, he travels in First Class? That costs Kshs18,000. But you can fly using Fly 540 which costs Kshs4,500. The Prime Minister and the Vice-President are always flying. If you are going to address the cost of living, we need to get the Prime Minister and the Vice-President to remain in those offices for three months. We should do so with all the Ministries. Looking at the composition of this Committee and with the support of this House, I felt that we need to do the nitty gritty; address the factors that have brought us to this level. The biggest problem we have is lack of commitment by the Government. To show you that there is no commitment, you can see that apart from the Assistant Ministers, there is no single Minister present in the House now. This is because there is no commitment by the Government. This was very clear on Labour Day. They could not face the public, so they sent the poor Minister, Munyes. I am sure if there was a reshuffle, Mr. Munyes would be requesting to be moved away from that Ministry. They sent Munyes and are you aware that he went there with a 20 page speech? However, because of the environment and hostility in Uhuru Park, he could only read the last paragraph, which contained the figures. I am just curious; what would have happened if the Prime Minister, Vice-President or the President himself had gone there? People would know that the two Principals and the Government have commitment to address the issue of salaries of the workers of this country. But because there is no commitment, they did it in the style of the ostrich; they put their heads in the sand and said “come what may”. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, to show you that there is lack of commitment in this Government and that we do not expect much from it, what we are doing is what a hyena did. The hyena went and spoke to the stone and told the stone: “Even if you do not reply, you have heard.” That is what this Parliament will do; we know we are talking to the stone and we know very well that they will not respond. But at least we have a duty to do that as a Parliament. To show you how this Government is determined, last week when this Motion was brought here, both Whips; the ODM Whip and PNU Whip whipped people out because the Government has no commitment. So, as I said, let us talk to the stone. Even if the stone does not act, we do it the hyena style, but, at least, we have told it. With those few remarks, I support."
}