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{
    "id": 896638,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/896638/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 218,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dadaab, KANU",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mohamed Duale",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1377,
        "legal_name": "Mohamed Dahir Duale",
        "slug": "mohamed-dahir-duale"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the President’s Address. From the outset, I want to appreciate His Excellency the President for the Speech to the nation and the two Houses of Parliament although the spirit of the Speech did not capture some of the issues that were really of concern to many Kenyans. We have, for example, the BBI. It is a well-grounded initiative and it is good, but one thing that is obvious to many Kenyans is that it will not make any sense to make peace and agreement with one leader and another one goes out through the other door. I think this country is headed that way right now. The political temperatures have been rising over the last few months. One of the things I will advise His Excellency the President is to pacify the leadership, which is currently not in good terms. The spirit of the handshake should encourage everybody on board. Although we have been told that the economy is growing and is strong, I think we also have a challenge and it must be said very clearly. In terms of our economic growth, economists have been giving us figures. One of the indicators, and I feel that the economy is not doing well, is funding to county governments that trickles like a drip fixed on a patient. We have the NG- CDF, which helps the education sector, for example. If you look at both primary and secondary education in terms of construction of classrooms and other amenities and in terms of paying fees, the NG-CDF has supported education with the leadership of Members of Parliament. I am sorry to say that currently, we are approaching the end of the financial year and Members of Parliament, through the NG-CDF, have not accessed close to 80 per cent of the funds which were allocated. That, of course, is an indication that we are not collecting revenue to disburse to both county governments and the national Government. Many parts of this country have different situations. For us in the northeast, we border Somalia. Somalia has been unstable for quite some time, but that does not mean that there is no economic activity. We have borders with Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. Unfortunately, the border between Kenya and Somalia has been closed for over 10 years. This is not to say that there is no border movement of goods and people. Today, as a country, we are not gaining any revenue from that border because it is porous. Goods come in and people go out. This country needs every shilling. Right now, the only beneficiaries of that border movement of goods and people are bandits and terrorists. This has also created a serious migration of people from the northeast to the rest of Kenya, which in one way is good, but on the other hand, we are losing people there. They say nature abhors a vacuum. So that is another issue. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}