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"content": "areas that are not developed get priority. I am hoping that in this Parliament and in subsequent Parliaments, we do not start politicizing the Equalization Fund because then, we will be triggering a bomb in the country as we saw in 2007. Human beings can negotiate over a lot of things, but cannot negotiate over empty stomachs. This is a matter of life and survival for the people. I am happy that the Constitution now provides for, at least, 15 per cent of the Government Budget to go to the devolved governments. Really, as a party, our concern was that it should not be at 15 per cent. We had actually called for a higher budgetary allocation of, at least, 50 per cent. I am hoping that the persons who will be allocating this Budget shall take cognizance of the fact that many parts of this country are not developed and, therefore, push that allocation to 50 per cent or more. I want to speak on the issue of universal primary education. Even though what the Government has done is laudable, we must do away with certain policies that result in further marginalization. For instance, the policy that was passed recently by the Ministry of Education to deal with the issue of private and public schools, in effect, further re-marginalized areas like Suba. I know of very brilliant girls, who are orphans, who have studied under very difficult circumstances in Suba and have passed and qualified to join national schools. They studied in schools that are supported by foreigners to enable the children access education. These are schools like Christ the King Academy and Gethsemane in Mfangano Island. They did not get an opportunity to join national schools. From Suba District, there may be only three girls who have gone to university over the last ten years. Therefore, the Government must set aside resources to ensure that we do not become extinct. When the census was conducted recently, my friends were telling me that members of the Suba Community can be put into two buses and told to go away, because they were about 200,000. If we continue with this trend, in the next few years, we might be put into one matatu . Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also want to add my voice to what Dr. Joyce Laboso has said. I was very disappointed by the statement that was made by the Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs, which seems to give tokenism to the women of this country. I want to name just a few women who even in their respective professions and the offices they hold qualify. In the Office of the Attorney-General, we have a woman called âMuthoni Kimaniâ. She is very hard working. She has been there for several years. Why are we going to look for people from outside when we have Muthoni Kimani? Even if we are looking for ethnic balance, she is Muthoni Kimani. We want women in those positions. We have Alice Ondieki, who qualifies for the post of Director of Public Prosecutions. We have Dorcas Oduor, who qualifies, and who will probably be the one who will induct the person who has been put there. As women of this country, we are tired of being treated like second-hand citizens. The Constitution has given us our right, and we will not take it anymore! We will not agree to be dormant. We are the ones who have brought reforms in this country, and we shall not be treated in the way we are being treated here. After the Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs mentioned all the names of persons on the list being negotiated, as an afterthought, he said: âWe then said we might give a woman the position of Deputyâ. Excuse me! Even I qualify for the position of the Attorney-General of this country. If you want to see papers, we can produce them. Hon. Martha Karua is also here. We have very many women who have qualified. So, we should not be treated that way."
}