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{
    "id": 582601,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/582601/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 393,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Prof.) Nyikal",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. May I also start by congratulating our athletes for the work they are doing out there and for the unity they bring to us. I was really amazed when I saw all sides of the divide watching television, ululating and doing all sorts of things together. I said that I wish we could always be doing everything like this. It reminded me of an experience I had last weekend when about 20 young couples, including my daughter, actually visited me. They were visiting parents and they came from all over Kenya: Kambas, Luos, Kikuyus including even people from Uganda and Rwanda. They said they are couples for peace and harmony and they are actually taking this actively and doing something about it. I cannot re-experience the joy that I saw as the children of these couples were playing in my compound in Nyanza, not quite caring where they come from. I thought, maybe, that is the Kenya we need. If these young people can do that, we should copy them. Today is also the anniversary of our new Constitution. Whatever else we say; this Constitution has brought us a long way in terms of the Bill of Rights. Importantly, is the issue of devolution. There have been many things said about devolution and about the governors. This is a great thing that we, as Kenyans, brought together. The only thing I will say and I will keep repeating is that politics of devolution have actually overwhelmed the logistics that we need in the process of devolution. If we could throw away the politics and look at the very important logistics and programmes that we need to make devolution work, we will go a long way. I hope as we come back, we will be looking at it. During the session, we also had issues of corruption. Corruption and ethnicity are probably the biggest challenges to our nationhood and statehood. I am not convinced that we, as a people, are devoted at heart to fighting corruption. I see lip service at all levels, including in institutions we have put in place to fight corruption. During the session we passed many Bills and discussed constitutional Bills, some of which we may discuss again. Today, we have passed very important Bills, including the Finance Bill. I was particularly happy to note that many of us have noticed that banks, particularly the big ones, need to be checked. I always wonder how, with an interest rate of 15 per cent, you can take a loan from a bank, do business, get profit that covers your overheads, have some money to pay the loan and keep something for yourself to run the business. So, we need to keep the capital base low so that we encourage competition. Before Equity Bank was established, it reached a point where you could not open an account with the big banks, if you had less than Kshs10,000. This locked out a large number of Kenyans. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}