Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 595345,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/595345/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 347,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Musimba",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1804,
        "legal_name": "Patrick Mweu Musimba",
        "slug": "patrick-mweu-musimba"
    },
    "content": "sort of money. Kenya is richly blessed. Our big brother, Hon. Nyenze, Leader of the Minority Party, has pointed this out many times, that Kenya is, indeed, a blessed country. This is just a tip of the iceberg. We know that discovery of oil has heralded a lot of conflicts around the world. We need to have caution and not speed ourselves up. Are we putting the cart before the horse or the egg before the chicken? We should establish the mechanisms of how we will treat this money prior to enacting this Bill. If we are talking about a sovereign fund as opposed to the Consolidated Fund, which is what is currently in existence in law, the Consolidated Fund can simply be expended on Budget proposals as we do every year through the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) and the Budget making process; many justifications will trigger the attrition over these monies. It is easy to come and think largesse and say we want first class railways and super highways and roads. But, then, we are not going to face the challenges of the future because that is not even known to us. All what is known at the moment is the importance of human capital development which is where we are at. We need to tackle this. The Chairperson of the Committee alluded to Article 71 as a challenge. This Bill does not address itself to completion, makers and intentions of the Constitution in Article 71, which says that this House shall be the sole custodian of ratifying every agreement that is entered into within the natural resource frame. But, when you look at Clause 58, it is very loose. It just goes round in circles, that if Parliament does not pass it or sends its reservations back to the CS, the CS goes back to the Advisory Committee and then it is referred back to the House. Within 90 days, if the House does not pass that resolution, then, it is assumed that the agreement has passed. We know that the programme of this House is heavy. As we know, from time to time we are frustrated waiting for reports. It takes time and even years. So, we cannot have these provisos that actually seek to override the provisions within the Constitution. We must be careful for investment purposes as we talk about the Dutch disease. We should look at our strategic sectors, which are well endowed. For example, our livestock; how are we going to become a power house in livestock for our pastoralist communities? How do we get to 100 million herds of cattle and say we will become a beef producing country? When you look at the Constituencies Development Fund, it comes with particular provisos and percentages that clearly mark the priorities of our people on the ground. This needs to be captured very well before we start expending on other areas. We are not saying that we are starting from the scratch, and we have not yet explored. We have explored. This Bill does not show us the transitional mechanism beyond the people who are already current block holders of these blocks of exploration. It does not state what happens. Does the Cabinet Secretary wake up the next day and say that everybody who had a block previously loses everything, all their investment and what they have done becomes nothing?"
}