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"content": "statement by the President, coming from the highest office. He is either misinformed or wants to misinform Kenyans and the world. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the President also stated that the economy has grown and we have a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Kshs53.3 billion. I do not wish to contest that because I am neither an economist nor have I studied that report. So, I want to agree with him that it is at Kshs53.3 billion. Why are the poverty levels high? In fact, other reports have indicated that the levels that we are dealing with now have never been dealt with since Independence. Why is the cost of living skyrocketing? Why is this economic growth not translating into job opportunities for Kenyans, especially the youth? Somebody will have to explain to me how we can, on one hand, have high economic growth, and on the other one, have high levels of poverty. All these are rising at the same level. My mind which is not of an economist, does not comprehend this kind of a situation. What is being presented to me as a fact is not the reality on the ground. So, I beg not to agree with that. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, another point of disagreement is on the issue of unity. When he started making that statement, I almost gave him a standing ovation on my own, because we really need to unite. However, as I have said before, actions speak louder than words. You do not have to sing unity. You only have to act unity and everybody will know that we are moving in the right direction towards unity. How can we talk about unity when everything else is talking disunity? We are a community of 42 ethnic groups. Whether we like it or not, right now, we are dealing with an apology of crimes and perceived social ills meted by past regimes and leaders. Right now, we have a golden opportunity to discontinue those kinds of crimes. Why should we apologize for the past, when we have an opportunity to correct that now, yet we are not correcting it? We apologize for the past, given an opportunity to heal, and then we mete out the same injustice. Whatever explanation we want to come up with will not speak to Kenyans. It cannot be a strange coincidence that everybody who is qualified, has experience and can fit into any job description, happens to come from two communities. That is not really the scenario. It is also interesting that we have an increased electricity production of 31 per cent and a further production of 31 per cent and a further statement that this is not reflected in the bills. At least, my bill is not reflecting that, and it has remained high. Why is that not reflected here? With decrease in energy cost, we should be attracting more investors instead of them finding destinations in the neighbouring countries like Uganda and Tanzania. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, lastly, I would like to make a small comment on the issue of corruption. My take is this; all of us in this House and this nation have goodwill towards the eradication of corruption. Nobody wants to see a scenario where corruption is condoned but let us be honest with ourselves. In the last three years, we only managed to deal with 11 corruption cases. Now we have 175 cases to deal with in 60 days. We want to deal with corruption or we want to present a situation where it looks like we are dealing with it yet we are not. In my own opinion, we could have presented ten credible cases that should be investigated and prosecuted thoroughly. These 175 cases are not properly investigated and prosecuted or all found not guilty. 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."
}