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"id": 60502,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/60502/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
"speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
"speaker": {
"id": 195,
"legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
"slug": "raila-odinga"
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, the issue of cost-sharing is a policy that we will review at an appropriate time, as our economy continues to improve Hon. Waibara was concerned about the issue of money laundering. Money laundering is a crime. The hon. Member needs to know that it is only last year that we passed a law, here to deal with the issue of money laundering. Before that, we did not have proper instruments to deal with that very serious crime that continues to rob us of our resources. We even have the Serious Crime Unit within the police that deals with crimes like money laundering. Hon. Mbadi was concerned about the loss of revenue as a result of going into common markets. There are a lot of benefits that can accrue as a result of the country getting into a bigger market. We are going to have more access into those other markets. Our goods will be more affordable in those markets as opposed to the time when duties were being levied against our goods and yet, they were competing with goods from other markets. The benefits that accrue to us as a result of getting into markets like those far outweigh the little revenue we were getting as a result of remaining alone. The shilling will weaken due to several factors. One is because of the decrease in the prices of our own exports and investors withdrawing, for example, their capital from our own market. That, therefore, means that we will have less money to chase goods in the economy. There are several factors that are responsible for the weakening of the shilling. As I said, this is also associated with the rising prices of crude oil which we have to import from outside the country. The hon. Member for Lari wanted to know what the Government is doing with mature forests. We have plantation forests as opposed to indigenous forests. The ban that the Government has imposed is basically on indigenous forests which we want to protect. The plantation forests, when they mature and are not harvested, just decay in their own way. The Government is going to lift the ban on logging of trees in plantation forests which are mature for harvesting right now. The hon. Member for Nyakach said - and I agree with him - that it is a 24 hour economy that will help us to achieve Vision 2030 objectives. That can only work if the people are enabled to work for 24 hours and feel secure within their own country. A lot of effort is being put towards that direction and Closed Circuit Televisions (CCTVs) are being installed. Contracts and money have been given through the police to put up CCTVs in strategic parts of the city and other towns in our country to help in the fight against crime in our country. Finally, the hon. Member for Mutito was concerned about the different positions that have been taken by coalition partners on the issue of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Differences within coalition governments have not been invented in this country. They have existed for as long as coalitions have existed. That is because there are differences in terms of policies and, sometimes, compromises cannot be reached. What they used to do, in the Grand Coalition Government that has just ended its term in Germany more than a year ago, is that on issues over which the coalition could not agree, they were ring-fenced and put aside. That enabled the coalition to move on. So, I want hon. Members, in this House, to understand that we are not unique in this country. With regard to the issue of the ICC, we have differences in opinion; on the issue of the deferral or referral. Deferral is provided for in the Rome Statute under Article 16. Article 16 is the one that states that a party in the Government can apply, through the UN Security Council, for deferral of cases which are brought against its subjects if - and there is a condition to it - the security situation in the country is not endangered if the trials are carried on, or it will endanger the international security, meaning of a region, for instance. Our view was that those conditions do not exist in this country. That deferral can only be done for one year. In other words, if you apply and the UN Security Council agrees, then the cases are deferred for one year. Our position was: How does that help the accused persons if the cases are deferred for one year? They will just be there with charges hanging around their necks for one full year and experiencing the stigma. So, we did not find that route being helpful to this country, and we stated as much. We felt that it was costing this country a lot of taxpayersâ money unnecessarily. First, we went through the AU. I did not see why it was necessary to do the âshuttleâ diplomacy, running around the continent, talking to some leaders who either have cases, or are potential candidates for the ICC. We stated that very clearly and that has to do with Article 19 of the Rome Statute which states that a country can apply to the ICC if the subjects have been charged and if this country has a credible process in place."
}