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"id": 94410,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/94410/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Foreign Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
"slug": "moses-wetangula"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. May I, first, thank all Members who have contributed to this Motion because all have supported it without exception. All have indicated in different terms and terminologies and words that my Ministry is actually underfunded. I thank the House for appreciating this. I agree that we need to be better funded to be able to discharge the mandate of the Ministry in assisting the country to move forward. Let me take this opportunity to thank the two principals, His Excellency the President and the Prime Minister in helping us to focus and steer the policy of the country in dealing with issues that bring Kenya to the fore and bringing Kenya to a position that it deserves within the context of East Africa, Africa and the global state. There is no doubt whatsoever, that there is an absolute need for a technical fund as the Chairman of the Committee said. In fact, we put it in our budget proposals and unfortunately, it did not need the favour of the Ministry of Finance. A Technical Fund will go a long way in assisting the Ministry and the Government and the country in portraying our capacity, ability and capability as a leader in the region to dispense certain support services like limited scholarships and what hon. Mungatana talked about; the Peace Fund that will be able to help the country to take issues of the region forward. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, ambassadors who are appointed are normally very carefully chosen and vetted. I must point out that previously ambassadors used to be appointed and sent out to stations. Under my watch, we now have a very vibrant Foreign Service Institute where any persons nominated to be ambassadors or high commissioners undergo very rigorous across-board training on protocol, economy and many issues that touch on the matters that we expect them to do before they are posted to their stations. This has yielded tremendous results to the extent that when nominees graduate to go to their stations you will see consummate diplomats moulded out of persons who did not have diplomatic backgrounds as they are appointed. The issue of appointing non-career and career diplomats to be our ambassadors is nothing new. All countries do this mix and whether you go to the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK), Russia or wherever, you will find there is always a component of career diplomats, persons who have sacrificed and dedicated their time to serve their country through the rank and file and growth and also situations where you require diplomats with a political touch. That is why when you go to the USA, you will find President Obama appointing former President Clinton as a roving ambassador to go and solve problems here and there. There are many others. Here in Kenya we have seen President Kibaki appoint retired President Moi as our ambassador and special envoy to Sudan which job he is still doing. There are many others. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you have seen how the African Union (AU) is using retired Presidents; President Mkapa, President Kuofor and all these are part of the political formula that strays into diplomacy and do a lot of good work. I agree with Dr. Wekesa that there is need to teach more languages. Indeed, the Foreign Service Institute is now preparing a curriculum for language orientation. I am happy to inform the House that we also have the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi teaching Chinese for those who want to learn Chinese. Recently on the visit of the Brazilian President we agreed as two countries that Brazil is going to open a Portuguese language institute in one of our public universities to be able to augment our desire to learn other languages. Arabic language is very vibrantly taught at the University of Nairobi. Spanish should be encouraged. For French we have the Alliance Francaise institute in Nairobi that has been quite helpful. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you come to my Ministry I have officers who speak several of these languages. I am very proud of one officer Amb. Ayugi who speaks Portuguese fluently, Spanish fluently, French fluently, Arabic, English and of course Dholuo which is his mother tongue. We encourage our diplomats to be in that mold. Mr. Mungatana talked about the issues of prioritization. In Dar-es-Salaam we have a fantastic chancery and residence which has been built. So there is no need to allocate more money to Dar-es-Salaam. In Uganda we proposed to the Ministry of Finance to allocate Kshs150 million to start the construction of a chancery and a residence. No shilling was allocated. We were recently allocated one of the most prime properties in Rwanda and we are hoping that in the next Budget the Ministry of Finance will be able to find favour in getting allocation for the construction of that building. In the long term, I think we have a leaf to borrow from our neighbours; Tanzania. In Tanzania, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has partnered with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and any developments of properties for the Government and the Ministry is undertaken by the NSSF as an investment. The Ministry then continues paying rent to the NSSF and it is a good return on workersâ pension funds. They are soon starting to build a 23-storey building in Upper Hill on a property donated to them by the Government of Kenya. I think the Committee would be very helpful to this Ministry if it did, in liaison with other Committees that oversee the Ministry of Labour, bring together some guidelines that can help us to move in that direction so that the pension funds that were in the past used to sink into public land can go towards that very positive venture. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I agree with Mr. Nyamweya that we need to harmonize issues that are cross-cutting between my Ministry and other Ministries. I did mention the issue of visa fees which Eng. Gumbo and the chairman also referred to. There are many others that we need to mention. One of the things that I am quite happy about is that through the guidance of the two Principals and support from my very able assistant, Mr. Onyonka and my team that is sitting here, we have been able to do a lot of tangible things that we can talk about. In the two and a half years that I have been in charge of this Ministry, I have convinced countries to come to open missions here. Congo Brazzaville has opened an embassy here. Swaziland that had closed its embassy here is re-opening. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is opening an embassy next month. Cameroon is opening an embassy before the end of the year. Many other countries are coming back to the country to enhance Kenyaâs image as a diplomatic hub. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, through our efforts Kenya Airways is making its inaugural flight to Rwanda and Angola making it one of the key destinations for the airline. In fact, I have invited the Committee to nominate two Members of Parliament to come along with me to go and inaugurate the first flight of Kenya Airways to Rwanda and Angola on the 17th of this month. We will continue doing this. It has taken us more than the last five to ten years to break into the Angolan market for Kenya Airways. This is very crucial because it enhances the image of Kenya and Nairobi in particular as a hub. There is no doubt, as Mrs. Shabesh said that Addis Ababa is a very critical station for this country. This is because it is the headquarters of the AU and we also represent ourselves in the second most populous country in Africa. This is a country that is destined to be one of our key trading partners in the very near future when we finish the construction of the Port of Lamu and rail link between Lamu and Addis Ababa. We are strengthening the mission. In fact, the two other missions Mrs. Shabesh mentioned; in Geneva we have two ambassadors. We have Amb. Tom Mboya Okeyo as the ambassador in charge and we have posted Amb. Andanje as a full ambassador but deputy head of mission to augment the weight and volume of work that is available there. I agree that South Africa is also doing well. We saw this when we had the xenophobic attacks on Kenyans and the mission did a wonderful job. In Addis Ababa, I have recommended and waiting for Cabinet approval that the mission requires a second ambassador to augment the work of the ambassador that we posted there. We are, therefore, thinking in tandem on what we need to do. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on issues of protocol we sometimes blame our officers out there simply because of lack of adequate resources to assist them. Sometimes Kenyans go out there and expect embassies to give them cars, help them on this and that. The budget is what we require. Other missions like South Africa, when you go to every mission they have a standby utility car for assisting nationals of their country when they come by. If you go to some of our missions, we do not have those cars. If we can enhance the budget allocation to my Ministry certainly we will be able to address the needs of Kenyans. Indeed, if any Member of Parliament or any Kenyan went to any station and you were treated by any of our diplomats with blinkers of party affiliation; whether ODM, PNU, FORD(K) or ODM(K), such a person is not fit to represent this country. Kenyans must be looked at as Kenyans, pure and simple! This is what we encourage all our diplomats to do."
}