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{
    "id": 78532,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/78532/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 258,
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    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Mwathi was concerned about the Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). He asked what steps the Government is taking to ensure that FDIs do not edge out locals. I want to give him an assurance. We do not intend to have foreign investors dislodge local investors. It has not happened anywhere else. There is room and scope for both foreign and local investors. We are conscious of the fact that no country can ever develop on the basis of foreign investments alone. Foreign investors come into a country when the conditions are right, so that they can be able to make profits and instead of ploughing the profit back into the economy, they repatriate it back to pay dividends to their shareholders. Therefore, there is also need to encourage local investments and we are consciously encouraging local investors by ensuring that capital and credit is available to local investors to engage in productive activities. It is also necessary for us to encourage the culture of saving as a people. It is only through saving and borrowing that we are going to be able to break this vicious cycle of poverty. So, we want to encourage Kenyans and challenge them to come up and get involved in venture activities. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the entrepreneurship spirit is what will help our people. Currently, we still have the mentality of employment. The elite or the educated of our society must develop entrepreneurship spirit so that we do not have only this spirit of peddling CVs all over and talking about employment all the time. When we go to the rural areas, we keep on lamenting that our people are not employed in the Government. They say, “we have no Managing Directors; we have no chairmen of parastatals; we do not have Permanent Secretaries; we do not have this and that”, and so on. These hon. Members have to understand that they have a responsibility in educating our people to think outside the box. The Government has only about 500,000 employees. Those are the only jobs that are available in the Public Service, if you include the civil servants, the police, the military and teachers, all those positions are filled; they are not vacant. We only get vacancies when people retire or when they die. That is a very small number. That is why this idea of our tribe having no MDs or chairmen of parastatals is misplaced."
}