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{
    "id": 867716,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/867716/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 126,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nyaribari Chache, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Richard Tong’i",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2611,
        "legal_name": "Richard Nyagaka Tongi",
        "slug": "richard-nyagaka-tongi"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to support this agreement. I support it because I believe it is the way to go. The world is becoming a global village. All of us must be prepared to partake and have a share of it. The way to do it is by reducing the amount of time people spend on travel and, more so, the time spend on transit. The agreement between Kenya and Jordan, Kenya and Jamaica, Kenya and Bahamas, and Kenya and Turkey will ensure provision of faster air transport services that will no doubt open up new opportunities for our country, even as our youth get employment. We all know that competition creates quality services. It ensures that all of us compete at international level and also creates an opportunity for KQ to improve on their services. When you run on your own course without a competitor around you, you sometimes think you are the fastest, when actually you are not. When you have competition around you preparing to take up your market share and you are not upping your game, you lose a lot. Therefore, this will be an opportunity for all of us as a country and even for KQ, which is a form of air travel diplomacy. When KQ improves its services, and is seen to be doing a good job, Kenya is also respected. It improves the image of the country and the entire world gets to know that we are serious people who can afford to give first class services. Having said this, we also have a duty. As the Departmental Committee on Defence and Foreign Affairs, where I am the Vice-Chairman, we need to be involved in some of these agreements because that is our domain. We understand some of the intricacies involved in bilateral issues. In future, we need to have all the stakeholders concerned involved in making these critical decisions. That will go a long way in ensuring that we have sealed all the loopholes that may be existing by way of having many people looking into what is going on or what is being signed into law. We have seen some agreements which have been signed. You look at them and wonder what the people who were involved were thinking, because the agreements are so skewed to the disadvantage of Kenya. I am informed of one agreement which has been signed between Kenya and some international companies on power line. Some of them are unreasonably expensive, especially in instances where, as country, we are required to pay money for services which have not been rendered. This is because the people who were drafting the agreements only looked at one side without being the devil’s advocate. When we involve many people, we are able to look at the same page, guide each other and enrich agreements in our favour. On the face of it, this is a good agreement. It is a good direction for the country. We need to embrace and open up more opportunities. Even as we do that, we need to look at the business opportunities and the viability of that agreement we are signing. We might sometimes enter into agreements with some countries with a population which is smaller than Kisii County combined. The population of Kisii is about 4 million or thereabout. If you enter into an agreement with a country with a population of Kisii County, we honestly do not have a very good competitive advantage. We all know that the success of business is about numbers. The more the numbers, the more the population, hence the opportunity we have of making more business."
}