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{
    "id": 60278,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/60278/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 262,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Magwanga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 73,
        "legal_name": "Joseph Oyugi Magwanga",
        "slug": "joseph-magwanga"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir for giving me this opportunity to contribute. Allow me to congratulate the President for his Address yesterday. Allow me also to thank Mr. Speaker for his Address yesterday. They actually talked very nicely. They were full of words of wisdom. We need to copy them and discuss the policy statements they issued very ably. Let us actually be concerned of the welfare of the people of this country. When you see this Parliament having 222 Members elected in this country out of possibly 40 million Kenyans, there must have been something special which the people of this country saw in each and every Member in order to elect him or her into this House. I want to say that Members of this House should be credible and focused in order to articulate issues of this country. This is our country and the only legacy we will leave behind is good laws to defend, protect and run this country for our future generations. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to say that the only good thing that this House will leave as its legacy is the new Constitution. The new Constitution that we passed last year has a lot of benefits for this country. It is likely to lead this country to prosperity. On that note, I want to say that the President’s Speech articulated issues concerning the legislation of the Constitution which are actually very key. A flawed process is likely to lead this country to hell. I want to say that we do not want to leave this country in bad hands. We do not want to leave this country the way we found it; we need to leave this country a better place to live in. For us to leave it a better place, then we must enact these laws and be faithful to one another, contribute fruitfully, be sincere to one another, be focused, creative and innovative. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the President talked about implementation. One of the key legislations is the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Bill. This is actually a very important commission for us. In the Constitution, it is stated that we will go for elections with 290 constituencies. Only and only if we pass the creation of that commission shall we go to the elections. I want to urge hon. Members to be sincere with this. It is this House that approved the Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission (IIBRC). The Commissioners moved across the country collecting views. When they brought their report here, we rejected it. That was actually unfair. We are calling upon everybody to support the one which will be brought by the coming commission. Even in my constituency, having over 200 primary schools and over 70 secondary schools, when you sit down to disburse the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF), it becomes impossible to do so. A number of children are learning under trees. Some of the patients are not even getting medicine because of inadequate funds. In case you approve that commission, I am sure my constituency will be sub-divided into two and the resources are likely to be enough to serve them. This country is in the 21st Century, but it is still lacking some basic essential necessities, for example, water. We are still yearning for clean water. This is something that was in the policies of the 1960s. By the year 2000 we were to have clean drinking water. Where is it? This calls for proper policies and they should be implemented so that this country can have clean water for drinking. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the unemployment rate in this country is staggering at almost 60 per cent whereas those countries that attained independence at around 1963 have an unemployment rate of 3 per cent. This means that we have to do more in order to create employment opportunities for our people. I want to urge all of us to come out and see how best we can move forward. In 1968, this country was able to donate relief food to other countries. As we speak now, our people are still relying on relief food. It is a sad affair. The Ministry of Agriculture must come up with firm policies to be implemented to ensure that there is food security in the country. Agriculture has collapsed and yet it has been the highest foreign currency earner. If it has collapsed, where are we going to earn our foreign exchange? We need not have an imbalanced trade with other countries. We need to promote exports more than imports to this country. We are talking about a GDP of Kshs2.5 trillion. If the countries which attained independence at the same time as Kenya are talking of a national budget of Kshs25 trillion, ours is actually a sad affair. We must change. This country must start thinking seriously on how we can improve our GDP. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to talk about an issue that was not addressed by the President. This is to do with corruption. We know corruption has eaten this country a lot. People are fighting to become richer than the State! This is why we are where we are."
}