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{
    "id": 836948,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/836948/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 275,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiminini, FORD-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Chris Wamalwa",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1889,
        "legal_name": "Chrisantus Wamalwa Wakhungu",
        "slug": "chrisantus-wamalwa-wakhungu"
    },
    "content": "Secondly, we must improve on the welfare of the staff working in those foreign missions. Research has shown that there is a positive correlation between how an employee relates to the customer and how he is treated by the employer. If you do not treat your employee well, you do not expect your employee to treat your customer well. It is the same thing for our foreign missions. Our ambassadors are trying, but at times when you visit them you realize that their salaries have been delayed. You can imagine a salary being delayed for two months in a foreign country. Where will you go and borrow? You do not have your relatives there. Some of their children are sent home because of lack of fees. The medical insurance is a problem. You can imagine becoming sick in a foreign country and you cannot afford the medical facility. You are told that you have already gone beyond your credit limit. It is very shameful. The current Cabinet Secretary, Ambassador Monica Juma, is a career diplomat. She understands the issues of foreign affairs in and out. It is high time she negotiated for a good budget at the Cabinet level. From there, when we come to the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) where the National Treasury puts some ceilings… A lot of those ceilings are as a result of Cabinet meetings. I know she has very good negotiation skills. We expect her, together with the Principal Secretary who is also a career diplomat, to negotiate for high budgets at the Cabinet level because it is the Cabinet that sets Treasury ceilings. Those ceilings are incorporated in the BPS. If you have been given a ceiling of “x” billion shillings, for you to add an extra, say, Kshs10 billion, it would be very difficult. Therefore, it is indeed important that the respective CS and the PS start their lobbying early enough, at the Cabinet level, so that when it comes to the National Treasury on the Budget Policy Statement (BPS), the amount of money that is allocated should a bit higher. On the Departmental Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations, I know the chairmanship of Katoo ole Metito, he is an experienced Member. He has been a Cabinet Minister. They are doing good work. We just want to emphasise the issue of locations. We know very well that the foreign policy in this country is commercial. We also have political diplomacy but that one is insignificant. The significant part of it is more on trade. If we look at China; it is making Africa impoverished and it is high time we revisited and re-evaluated our relationship with China. When it comes to many African countries, it is a dead policy. They will give you a lot of money. When it comes to paying back, the payback period is shortened, yet the returns in terms of interest rate are very high. We are doing poorly in this country. Many of the problems are because of China. It is high time we looked at the foreign policy and see which areas or jurisdictions we should relate with. We did not suffer too much the time UK had very good relationship with Kenya. I know their aid comes with conditions because they are concerned about the welfare of Kenya. When it comes to China, it is high time we reconsidered the bad manners like corruption which is in this country. These are some of the things coming from China. When you go to China, there is something called “facilitation fee”. When you look for business from company “X”, there is a certain amount of money called “facilitation fee”. That is corruption. It has been exported into this country. A lot of corruption in many countries involves Chinese companies. Many of my colleagues will agree with me. It is high time, as we advance our foreign policy, that we knew which countries to partner with for the sake of the welfare of this country."
}