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{
    "id": 987991,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/987991/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1245,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tigania West, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mutunga",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13495,
        "legal_name": "John Kanyuithia Mutunga",
        "slug": "john-kanyuithia-mutunga"
    },
    "content": "number and the names of the vulnerable and the extent to which they are vulnerable. We keep going out there to look for the vulnerable yet we do not have a single budget line to do this. It is mishandled. Right now, there is hue and cry on those who have been identified as the vulnerable. Hon. Speaker, we are behaving like a non-developed country. A country like Rwanda is way ahead of us and is using data to locate and respond to the needs of its people. Why are we doing this at this particular point in time? The focus of the Supplementary Budget has been on other issues and not on COVID-19. Procurement of food outside Kenya is another item that has been allocated money, but my question is why we are prioritising importation of food. Every country today is urging its people to save money. If we buy food from our people, will we not be saving for a rainy day? The rainy season is already here with us. We do not know when COVID-19 will end. Let us not import food. Our people are only asking for a small margin and they will give us food to store. Strategic food reserve is not supposed to be given for free. It has always been sold. As the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock, we had followed up on the money generated after the selling of the strategic food reserves and the previous Cabinet Secretary told us they had enough money to buy food. Why are we allocating more money to buy food to sell and that money disappears? We must follow up on that issue. When we give food as relief, this House votes money for that particular purpose. We need to know where that money goes. This Supplementary Estimate does not focus on supporting local manufacturing. This crisis has created an opportunity for us to manufacture simple things like masks in order to support our people. We should look at opportunities to upgrade our level of manufacturing in terms of producing PPEs and respirators. Our young scientists have come up with some innovative machines that we must support. If we supported the Nyayo pioneers, we would be driving Kenyan cars. We do not believe in our own scientists and innovations. We believe in importation from China and yet it is killing our people. People there will not even realise that they are not supportive of us. Finally, I will speak about the Executive’s focus on using Article 223. I would like to mention that upon analysis of the Supplementary Budget, 68 out of the 157 programmes had bypassed the 10 per cent mark. If they have passed the 10 per cent mark, it means they have broken the law. We need to be cautious. Let me commend the Committee and Parliament for giving Kshs3 billion to the fight against COVID-19. We want to see what newspapers are going to say tomorrow because they just want to hear salaries have been cut. When salaries are cut, where does the money go? How is it consolidated and how does it respond to the fight against COVID-19?"
}