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"id": 668515,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/668515/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Katoo",
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"speaker": {
"id": 199,
"legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
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"content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to also support this Bill. Once the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) and the Report of the Budget and Appropriations Committee have been passed by this House, the Appropriation Bill would just be on line items of projects and services that have been already approved. Therefore, there may not be much to talk about the entire Budget process. So, I will just highlight some of the Budget items that have been shown in the Appropriation Bill. As it has been said, the Government has resorted to programme-based budgeting which calls for tangible and verifiable outputs. Therefore, in every Budget item, be it recurrent or development, it would be very good for these State agencies to clearly show that there is tangible and verifiable output for each service or goods delivered. This Budget may possibly be the last Budget before the next general election. There may be another Budget cycle, but in terms of funds being released to actualise projects, this may be the final one if this House sticks to the next general election being August next year. I have no reason whatsoever to believe otherwise. In terms of actualisation, if we look at infrastructure, we will find that the Government has been talking about tarmacking roads and it has achieved a lot, but they have also talked about the 10,000 low-volume seal roads. I think it will be important we are very careful to finalise some of the roads using this Budget, especially a road in my constituency, the Loitokitok-Taveta Road, which we share with my good neighbour, Hon. Naomi Shaban. It is good that we finalise such projects. Still under infrastructure, on the issue of electricity we have been talking about provision of transformers. I want to appreciate the effort of the Government because transformers are now available. We have the Last Mile Project where the Government intends to connect every citizen with electricity, especially those near power lines. Therefore, this Budget aims to finalise those projects. The project also seeks to power public utilities such as community watering points like boreholes, schools and health centres even though they are devolved. It is high time that the relevant Ministry finalised those projects within this financial year. Within the education docket, we have, as a Government, talked about building technical and vocational training institutions in every constituency in this country. With this Budget, I think it is the right time the Ministry concerned takes stock and sees which institutions within which constituencies have not been done. Being possibly the final Budget, it is good for the Ministry to complete those institutes. On the tablets for Class One pupils, I am very sure there have been pilot projects in several constituencies with regard to that project. Within this financial year, if the Appropriation Bill is approved by this House, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology should ensure that the provision of those tablets is completed. This Government has also come in handy by paying examination fees for students in Class Eight and Form Four who will be doing national exams in November and December, this year. Therefore, I urge this House to approve this Bill so that the payment of those levies is done by the Government. We have also been experiencing high shortage of teachers. Currently, we have a shortage of about 95,000 teachers in this country. In this Budget, though it may not be enough, there is a small portion that is meant for hiring new teachers, from 5,000 to 10,000. It will still make a difference. We keep urging the Government that if possible, it should employ 20,000 teachers per year to bridge that the gap. Therefore, I request the House that we approve this Bill. The The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}