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{
    "id": 798042,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/798042/?format=api",
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    "content": "As the august House and the Senate, we need to support these sentiments because they go to the fundamental value of what I call “family values”. As if he was aware of what he was talking about- and he was- the next paragraphs dwelt on family values. What have we taught our children? It was a sad experience the other day to see part of our population literally frog marching another Kenyan in public. Will we call these normal or abnormal family values? What do the children learn from us in our homes? Do they learn the culture of honesty and sincerity? Do they learn the culture of being tolerant with one another or they learn intolerance and how to throws words that can compel those families or the children there to do something which is criminal? We should meditate upon these issues; that governance issues stem from the family. For us to have good governance, we should be in a position to articulate our issues quite more clearly without much ado. I guess that was a very fundamental thing that he mentioned. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, yes, our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is at 4.9 per cent. We are doing slightly better that other African countries and the World Bank benchmark is 3.6 per cent. Before 2007, our GDP was at 7 per cent. We must look at this economy on the basis of what we are doing as Kenyans to go back to the previous glory where our economy was performing at 7 per cent. Is there something amiss? That was what the message of the President was all about. He is telling us that, yes, we are performing much better than other surrounding economies, but we could do better. What is the missing link for us to perform well in our economy? I dare hazard a guess that one of those issues has something to do with our national unity and how we want to conduct our businesses. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I need not go into other major issues. However, I want to raise a question at this stage. The President has flagged off four major areas of interest that if we are able to jumpstart the economy, they will provide reasonable jobs, some level of comfort for our citizenry. These areas include manufacturing, infrastructure including housing, health care and its ramifications and the other areas that I have not been able to clearly spell out. I know we have borrowed but it would have been nicer for the President to tell us what our public debt is today and how we want to manage it. He should have told us that we will get opportunity to interrogate that issue when the Budget Estimates are presented to the House, so that we do not live above our means. If it means trimming certain areas of our expenditure, we should do so to avoid mortgaging our future generations into that kind of living. When I was the ambassador for The United Nations Human Settlements Programme ( UN–Habitat ), I spent a lot of time on the New Urban Agenda. One of the most important elements in the agenda is housing and the informal settlements. Most towns and cities, if we are not careful, are going to grow as slums instead of new opportunities and challenges for our future. Those of us who are in charge of the county governments have a responsibility to see what level of towns and places we are going to bring up. I see that time has not been very kind on my side because I must talk about the “handshake”. For me and for the rest of the Kenyans, it is a God sent “handshake”. I fully The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}