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"id": 97917,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/97917/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Prof. Kamar",
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"speaker": {
"id": 33,
"legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
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"content": "The Committee in which Kenya has been sitting until last year is that of Political Affairs. This Committee discussed global governance and reforms of international institutions and exchanged views on the political situation in ACP countries. We were delighted that we were off the agenda as Kenya, because we had been on the agenda for a long time because of the situation we were in after the 2007 General Elections. I am happy to report that we were able to give our very good report; that Kenya is back on track. We reported that the political situation in Kenya was stable, and that we were moving towards our national referendum. I am happy to report that Kenya was applauded for the progress she had made, and for the milestone steps that she had made since the elections of 2007. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Committee further engaged the European Union Commission (EUC) on implementation of earlier resolutions and in particular, the resolutions of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). I know that hon. Members have this Report. There are quite a bit of details that need understanding, especially by the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade, and the Budget Committee, since the Report touches on a number of trade issues and trade relations between the African states and the EU. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Eighteenth Session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly held meetings in Luanda, Angola, from 24th November to 3rd December, 2007. The Session was a follow-up of one that was held in the Czech Republic, where we had represented this Assembly with Mr. Musikari Kombo, with the Secretariat being Njoroge S.N. The Joint Session was, as usual, preceded by Committee meetings. As I mentioned earlier, these were; the Committee on Social Affairs and Environment, the Committee on Economic Development, Trade and Finance, and the Committee on Political Affairs. During that session, Kenya was sitting for the last time on that Committee, because of the rotational basis of Committee sittings, and we were subsequently shifted. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am happy to report that we successfully moved to the Committee on Social Affairs and Environment, which was of interest to us because of the climate change issues, and because of the fact that we also wanted to continue pushing for the agenda of Nairobi remaining the seat of UNEP. During the Joint Parliamentary Session, reports were presented by the various Committees. The Report on Social and Cultural Integration and Participation of Young People in Development and Governance was presented. The Report on Social Impact of the Financial Global Crisis was presented. As I said, I can only highlight the issue of tourism as being one of the issues that affected us as Kenya and Africa in general. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Economic and Financial Committee discussed and presented a Report on Climate Change since we were at the point of preparing reports for the Copenhagen meeting. I want to say that we were, again, happy, as Kenya, to have hosted the African Group Summit here in Gigiri. We record our appreciation to the support that we received from various partners, including the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources and UNEP itself, which agreed to host the summit free-of-charge and gave us all the facilities that were required for the Assembly. We also had substantial support from the Swedish Embassy. I want that recorded, because it puts Kenya in a very pivotal position, even when we move to Copenhagen, basically because we became the second hosts of the Summit of African Parliamentarians on Climate Change. I also want to note, at this stage, that as we prepared for that meeting, members of our own group here in Parliament, namely, the Parliamentariansâ Network on Natural Resources and Climate Change, were actively involved. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to record our appreciation beyond this House, and the support of Mr. Speaker, who sent a record six Members of Parliament to Copenhagen for the conference. We also had a good delegation from the Ministry, and the Delegation of the Head of State, which led the delegation. This has, again, put Kenya in a very nice position. I want to happily report that during this Session, Kenya was elected the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Social Affairs and Environment, which I was honoured with. During the same Assembly in Luanda, the ACP Parliamentary Assembly held a meeting and considered issues affecting member states, and in particular, looking at the political situations in various countries. There was adoption of a report on the persistent issue of the Eritrean and Djiboutian border conflict. This report was considered at the General Assembly and approved. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Joint Parliamentary Assembly was later opened by His Excellency Eduardo Dos Santos, President of Angola. The Joint Parliamentary Assembly JPA dealt with quite a number of issues, as detailed in the main Report, which was tabled in March. At the end of the ACP-EU Joint Assembly, the Kenyan delegation rallied the Joint Parliamentary Assembly membership to call for the elevation of UNEP in Nairobi into a global environmental body. The delegation explained that dealing with environmental issues at various UN agencies and international organisations did not forge the requisite coherency and cohesion in tackling environmental problems. Therefore, we strongly recommended, with my colleague, hon. Kombo, in our presentation, that it is necessary to come up with one global body, something close to what we call the World Trade Organisation or World Tourism Organisation. I am happy to report again that in this regard, the Joint Parliamentary Assembly, on 3rd December, 2009, adopted the resolution calling for the upgrading of the UNEP in Nairobi. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I happily note that the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi was recently given a better status. One of the issues we need to note, especially in this House, is the fact that if a UN headquarters is given a lower status, it not only attracts less international participation, but there is also reluctance in funding its programmes. I can, therefore, report that we were able to lobby for that, and the resolution was adopted by the Joint Parliamentary Assembly. In part, the resolution read:- âTHAT, the ACP-EU calls for the upgrading of the United Nations Environmental Programme into a fully-fledged World Environmental Organisation to be based in Nairobi and enhanced with adequate capacity to address the severity of environmental catastrophes internationally and major challenges in the world.â In doing so, the delegation was actually echoing the call by our President, Mr. Mwai Kibaki, who during the African Summit of the group of ten on climate change in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in October, 2009 urged his colleagues from Africa to join hands in pushing for the upgrading of the United Nations programmes into a fully-fledged World Environmental Organization to be based in Nairobi. So, ours as a delegation was to push the national agenda which had already been echoed by our Head of State. We are happy that, that resolution also passed. The ACP-EU also discussed matters of trade, especially the revision of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). The issue of EPAs is something that needs attention from this House, and in particular, from the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade. Since Mr. Kombo is a Member of that Committee, we have endeavoured to come up with a report that should be looked at very seriously. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the EPAs is a new type of trading relationship between the European Union (EU) and ACP-EU countries. It is based on a partnership towards proper development. It is very important that our Committee looks at this very seriously because it touches not only on Governments but also on Parliaments. Parliaments are expected to perform their oversight roles when it comes to the implementation of EPAs. More than that, the challenges of trade between the EU and Africa, for example, are mega and we are all aware that they are biased. We are talking about 3 per cent exports from Africa going to the EU when we receive more than 50 per cent of their products from importation. This bias is worsened by the fact that most of the products that are exported are actually raw materials, while what we import are finished products. This means that even industrialization is skewed towards the country that sells finished products versus the country that sells raw materials."
}