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{
    "id": 895732,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/895732/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 250,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Khaniri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 171,
        "legal_name": "George Munyasa Khaniri",
        "slug": "george-khaniri"
    },
    "content": "However, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in my opinion, there are a few issues that I deem extremely important and which I feel he did not come out very clearly on them. First and foremost, is the ravaging hunger that has stricken our people in Turkana and parts of Baringo, caused by the prolonged drought that we are experiencing. For a country as fertile as ours which boasts of enough food in our strategic reserves, it defeats logic to hear that people are starving; and that they are going without food. We hear that there are deaths, although the Government is denying that there are no deaths. I think people have died of hunger in those parts of the country that are affected. I expected the President to dwell on this matter because it is a very topical issue that is affecting Kenyans now. We are looking for long term solutions to the issue of hunger, and not just short term solutions. We cannot be talking about hunger year in, year out. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the second issue that I think the President did not come out very clear on, is the issue of unemployment of our youth. This is a time bomb because we are churning so many graduates from our universities and other colleges. We have established so many universities and we have so many graduates coming out every year, but then we have no capacity to absorb them. In my opinion, it is a serious crisis and a time bomb that we are sitting on, which might explode on us and the leadership; and it will be too late. This is an issue that must be tackled conclusively so that we ensure that we create employment in the private sector, as well as in the mainstream Government to absorb the many graduates that come out of our colleges and universities every year. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, on the state of the economy, I was very surprised to hear that our economy has been growing at a rate of about six per cent, and that the projection this year is 6.3 per cent. I expected that if the economy is growing at that rate – we saw this during President Kibaki‘s time – it should trickle down to the people; but we are not feeling it. You are telling us that the economy is growing, but our people are languishing in poverty."
}