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"id": 50542,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/50542/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mrs. Odhiambo-Mabona",
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"speaker": {
"id": 376,
"legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
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"content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I also want to that I note the BPS talks about the issue of constitutional implementation at the core of economic growth in this country. I want to encourage that, as a House, we must focus all our energies towards constitutional implementation in this House. We, in the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs, are not the only Members of this National Assembly. The House can go on with or without us. So, I would want to encourage that we put to the fore the issue of constitutional implementation. I would also want to note that even though the Budget Policy Statement highlights some of the issues very well, for instance, the issue of the effects of climate change â you do not see as much focus in terms of money put aside to mitigate the effects of climate change. So, I would want us to actually put money where we think the problem is. We must put money to mitigation of the effects of climate change. We should move away from the approach of looking at the symptoms and effects of climate change and not actually looking at the root causes of climate change and seeking to deal with them. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to say the same in relation to the issue of food security. If you look at the Policy Statement, you will see that it attributes the challenge of food insecurity that we are facing to the occurrences in northern African and climate change. We knew this three years ago. So, when the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Finance addresses such issues, they should not give us what we call âkiller assumptionsâ. When we budget for food, we should not assume that there will be good weather. That is the old model of planning. In the new model of planning, you must actually look at all those factors and deal with them, so that we do not talk about climate change every year. We cannot be talking about climate change every year. If you have control over climate change, you must find different ways of dealing with the issue of food security. Amongst those ways would, for instance, entail diversifying our agricultural activities. In the areas which are not agriculturally-rich, we can invest in irrigation and other means, so that we do not speak about the issue year in, year out. We passed the new Constitution last year. This year, we have moved on to implementation. We are no longer talking about passing the Constitution. So, as a country, we must learn to move forward. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at the section on the Judiciary, you will realise that the Policy Statement does not address itself to the fact that we recently passed; the Judicial Service Bill, which provides that there will be 47 County High Courts. This provision must be factored into the Budget. That is why I am saying that if you look at this Policy Statement, you will find that it is not aligned to the constitutional provisions and the laws that are being passed under the Constitution, to make the Constitution alive. Regarding the issue of diversification, which I was talking about, we must also learn to capitalise on what we already have instead of diversifying into areas which might not be productive and ignoring what we already have. A look at page 48 of the Budge Policy Statement on Fisheries Development, under Programme Objectives, shows that the programme objective is to maximise the contribution of fisheries to the achievement of national development goals, especially poverty eradication, food security and creation of employment and wealth. However, if you look at the programme output, you will see that it is about the increase of acreage of land under aquaculture production, increase of fish production from aquaculture, increase of fingerlings supplied to farmers, et cetera . I do not see where we have tried to deal with the issue of water hyacinth. Our greatest source of fisheries in this country is Lake Victoria. There is hyacinth in Lake Victoria but instead of dealing with it, we want to increase acreage of land and fingerlings. So, we are getting our priorities wrong. We are also not following the Fiscal Management Act, which provides that we must prioritise. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am glad that the Policy Statement also addresses itself to the issue of insecurity in this country. I would want the Government to take the issue of insecurity seriously. Only last week, two Members of Parliament were attacked by armed thugs in a hotel in the Western Kenya region. When I reported that I had been attacked, the Commissioner of Police himself mocked me and made a joke out of the incident. I became the more senior person and let go the matter. I want to say that whether or not we make a mockery of this matter, insecurity has moved to rural Kenya and the Government must deal with it decisively. Otherwise, we are going to lose our investors as a country. Previously, you could say that insecurity was only an urban problem. The problem is now in the rural areas and people do not feel safe in their homes. Surely, where can we go? Will we move to Uganda? The story is probably worse there. Finally, I want to speak on the issue of womenâs rights as provided for in the Constitution. Even though the Policy Statement recognises the issue of constitutional implementation as core, I would have wanted to see a lot more attention and focus placed on issues of reproductive health, access to water and other things which affect the day-to- day lives of women. Two days ago, I was in Ikolomani; at the burial of a woman who was born in 1981, and who died as a result complications of a simple delivery procedure. If in this century and time, we are losing young women because of very simple things like lack of access to doctors and urgent medical care, surely, we cannot say that we are a liberated country. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, looking at the issue of prioritisation, I am informed that a big chunk of the Budget of the Ministry of Medical Services was hived off and given to the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS). As a country, we may not be serious if we do not prioritise the allocation of resources to take care of the issues of youth unemployment and protection of women and children. Therefore, I want to conclude by saying that unless we protect women, we will put our country into a crisis. I would like to take this opportunity to laud an exemplary woman who has done excellent work in this country in terms of protection of women. She is today receiving an honorary degree from the Great Lakes University. I laud Her Excellency Ida Odinga. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}