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"id": 655354,
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"content": "Therefore, devolution is a game changer and the card that has come to tell every part of Kenya that they are part of our country. Mandera, for instance, is getting Kshs9 billion consistently for five years. An allocation of nearly Kshs50 billion to that county means a lot. They had never seen tarmac for 50 years and now, they have seen it, courtesy of devolution. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in this Schedule, Elgeyo-Marakwet County is getting Kshs3.5 billion. Just like Tharaka Nithi and Lamu, it is a relatively small county in size, compared to other counties in our country. These are small and marginalized counties historically. A total of Kshs3.5 billion in a financial year is a lot of money for Elgeyo-Marakwet. We are allocating Kshs3.4 billion this year to Tharaka-Nithi. Over the last three years we have allocated the county more than Kshs10 billion. This money can transform that county and we are happy with what is happening. Lastly - this is the saddest part - notwithstanding the promise of devolution and the hope that devolution has rekindled in the citizens of this country, in terms of an equal society, we are witnessing a terrible accident taking place. The accident that is taking place in Kenya today through devolution is the accident that occurred in 1965. Sen. (Prof.) Anyang’-Nyong’o, who is a scholar, is here and can challenge me, but my belief is that the majority of problems of post- independence Kenya are traceable to certain aspects of Sessional Paper No.10 of 1965, especially, the parts that brought out the policy of attending to and allocating resources to the so- called ‘high-potential’ areas, at the expense of the rest of the country. The ‘high-potential’ areas were described as areas that receive adequate rainfall, grow cash crops and that kind of thing. As a result of pursuit of that flawed policy, more than two- thirds of this country has remained excluded and marginalized. The anger in this country is emanating from that part. Places like Isiolo, Tharaka-Nithi, Lamu, Tana River, Elgeyo-Marakwet fell outside the so-called ‘high-potential’ areas. Therefore, nobody cared about infrastructure there. Some of these areas were regarded as waste lands. We do not have waste land in this country. In some developed countries; Australia and the US, there are highways and big corridors passing through deserts, because there is a connection between an area that may not have agricultural productivity, the overall economy and the future stability of that country. For example, why is there a bit of tension in some of the areas where oil has been discovered in northern Kenya? Why is it that in places like Nigeria, where oil has been discovered, there is always tension and sometimes violence? If we neglect an area for five or six decades because there is no rainfall, roads, power, water and all of a sudden, because a resource has been found there, everybody troops there and starts showing national solidarity with that part of the country that we have neglected for 50 years, there will, definitely, be a reaction. For 50 years, Turkana was regarded as waste land, but because oil has been found there, every Tom, Dick and Harry is running there. That is what devolution is trying to heal in this country. Anybody who is opposed to devolution must suffer the consequences that any traitor in a nation should suffer. This is the only thing that will save us from what we were staring at. Kenya was almost titling into anarchy because of skewed allocation of resources and marginalization. However, all of a sudden when gas is discovered in Marsabit and Isiolo, everybody goes there purporting to invest there."
}