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{
    "id": 895316,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/895316/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 159,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Ndwiga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 278,
        "legal_name": "Peter Njeru Ndwiga",
        "slug": "peter-ndwiga"
    },
    "content": "If you go to China today, there is no way you can start a business and own it 100 per cent. You will be required to get a Chinese partner who will own 50 per cent and you own 45 per cent of the business. In the neighbouring countries, it is exactly the same. How are we going to grow our Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs)? We can proudly say that we have people who have invested in this country and are assembling vehicles. However, where are the SMEs who are supplying parts and components to these industries? We do not have them. I applaud the Government for its effort in encouraging our young people to join Technical, Industrial and Vocational Education Training (TIVET) institutes and also for paying the costs that are involved in TIVET education. However, we still have many more youth that have been churned out by our local universities who have the knowledge but may not have the expertise. That is what is lacking. Madam Temporary Speaker, if we want to grow this nation in manufacturing, we have to relook at certain other policies. We have investors who come here to build roads and some are involved in construction. Where is the knowledge transfer that they are leaving back here? We are borrowing a lot of money; we have borrowed up to the neck in this country. What benefit do we get after the buildings have been constructed and these people have gone? We will still wait for 20 years from today for other foreigners who have more technical expertise to come and start building our roads, railways and buildings, if we want other buildings to be done. That is the sad part of what is currently happening. What was missing in this speech is emphasis on SMEs. Yes, the Government will launch the SMEs fund in a week or so; that is contained in the speech. However, what is the organisation of our SMEs? Since Independence in 1963, the first President and the first Government of this Republic realized that for us to uplift the local Kenyans, we needed to have a strong and robust Co-operative movement and that happened. That movement carried on and that is how this country grew and got its roots. Madam Temporary Speaker, during the time of the second Government, something went wrong in the area of co-operative development. When the Kibaki administration came in power, the Co-operative movement was revived again and Co- operatives became robust. How come now we are burying the same? That is why when we go back to our constituencies we are finding people who are disorganized. We have people in agriculture who do not know how to transform agriculture from peasant farming to business. You cannot do that if you are not together as a group or a Co-operative."
}