Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 94443,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/94443/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 278,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Foreign Affairs",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to support the Motion of this Ministry that is closely related to the Ministry that I head and we work very closely together. In the pursuit of bringing wider, deeper and beneficial co-operation in the region, the Ministry of East African Community is very important and critical having taken a conscious decision as a Government and the people of East Africa to fast-track this integration. Like my Ministry, I believe that the allocated funds are inadequate. Of course we appreciate that the envelope from which it is drawn is limited. However, this Ministry should be empowered to join hands with other East African Ministries to spearhead the issue of popularizing and sensitizing East Africans about the benefits of integration. The Heads of State of East Africa took a conscious decision for each and every member country of the five countries as a mandatory policy to have a Ministry of East Africa Community. This mandatory decision should be translated into beneficial effect to the people of East Africa. There is nothing that is exciting in this region than the process of integration that we are seeing unfolding; that is the signing and the coming into effect of the Common Market Protocol. I know that Kenyans in certain quarters have been uncomfortable with certain issues, but integration has a cost and benefits. I urge Kenyans to understand that some will benefit while others will lose. However, the overall picture is that the cost and benefit analysis on integration is a win-win situation. With the large market of East Africa bringing together 126 million people, this Ministry will be one of the anchor Ministries in driving the process of prosperity in this region. We want to see a situation where all sectoral councils and committees of the East African Community, for example, foreign affairs; defence; struggles against crime and infrastructure to bring harmony in the process of integrating East Africa. I urge hon. Kingi and his colleagues to start talking to our Minister for Education. If we are truly integrating, why are we on 8-4-4 System and yet the other countries are on the Form VI System? We need this harmony! We either convince them to take the 8-4-4 route or we find harmony so that children who go to school in Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya go through the same process. This is because if we are going to eventually have a political integration as we are trying to have a federated East Africa, then we need those uniformity shared values and interests so that the countries can move forward. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to urge my colleague to spend and pay a lot of attention to the Nile issues because the domicile of the Nile issues for the region is in East Africa. We have the Lake Victoria Basin Commission where the Nile waters are drawn from in very large quantities through the White Nile. We have had problems with our very close friends like Egypt and Sudan, complaining about the Nile Treaty that we have seen. I want to urge the Ministry of East African Community to take the lead in helping the East Africans understand what this is about the Nile Treaty, the old treaty that we have been talking about. It is a treaty that was so onerous and obscene in content that it said in so many words that the Nile waters would be shared as follows: 85 per cent to Egypt, 10 per cent to Sudan and 5 per cent to evaporation without caring that there is Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo and other countries that pour water into the Nile. I would want to see the Ministry of East African Community taking the lead to tell the people of East Africa that this is what is all about the new Nile Treaty that we are talking about, so that people can understand and appreciate. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also want to see in Arusha shared opportunity and resources. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, since my time is up, I beg to support."
}