George Gitonga Murugara

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 551 to 560 of 828.

• 31 Jul 2019 in National Assembly: know that there have been various conflicts and disputes regarding elections. Therefore, it is important that we have an IEBC with credible commissioners who will be trusted by everyone in the country. This is why we have said that while the other selection panel was composed of majorly religious leaders, let us have just two or three of them. The rest of the membership should be from other important bodies. With those remarks, I support. view
• 24 Jul 2019 in National Assembly: Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. Let me add my voice in support of the Motion. I thank Hon. Waluke because this is a very important Motion. We need to consider it and see exactly where we have gone wrong and try to have our trade balance equal, or at least base it on same standards. view
• 24 Jul 2019 in National Assembly: Trade deficits or trade imbalances are usually caused by exportation and importation of goods where imports exceed exports. It means that we spend more money importing goods as opposed to the amount of money we receive after exporting our goods. As a country, we must see how best we can export more than what we import. With regard to exports, they should include the goods we manufacture, our agricultural food products, livestock and fish, just as the Motion has been amended to include. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this ... view
• 24 Jul 2019 in National Assembly: We have Export Processing Zones (EPZs) in the country and a lot has been said about them. We have devoted a lot of resources into our EPZs with a view of ensuring that we cure the trade deficit or imbalance. However, we are informed that, in fact, some exporters from outside have set up base in our EPZs where they process goods which later on, they bring back to the country as their own products. That does not cure the trade imbalance. We have to look for innovative ways to cure the trade deficit so that, as a country, we ... view
• 24 Jul 2019 in National Assembly: We have talked about the various goods and services that we can export. They are many. We only need to sit down with our policy makers to consider what we have with us and use new inventions, techniques and innovations so that we treat the trade imbalance. Let us take the case of manufacturing textiles. Not a long while ago, we were highly endowed with cotton, one source for textile production. The best quality cotton was from Eastern Kenya in areas like Tharaka Nithi, Meru, Mwea, Kitui and from Nyanza. But eventually, this went down and the industry died. We ... view
• 24 Jul 2019 in National Assembly: On food crops, we have sufficient and the best quality products. We have the best rice, coffee, tea and green grams. We have Dengu from Tharaka, Meru, Embu, Kitui and Machakos. If we really added value to green grams and have ready markets to explore, including India, China and others, we would start treating the trade imbalance disease ailing us. We have the best of livestock production. Our meat products are sold in the East of the world and we are told the quality is extremely high. However, we are told of live camels being exported to Saudi Arabia. Live ... view
• 24 Jul 2019 in National Assembly: One way of treating trade imbalance will be to source for markets aggressively. As policy makers of the country, we have to aggressively market our country and its products. It is important that we sell what we have out there as the best. Incentives have to be given if we are to produce and market what will compete out there. In our case, we are known for high taxation. So, without incentives our goods cannot compete out there. That is why it is cheaper to import eggs from Uganda, chicken from Tanzania, and sugar from Brazil when we have sugar ... view
• 24 Jul 2019 in National Assembly: The net effect of trade imbalance in the country is gross unemployment. That is what is ailing our country. It is the reason every Kenyan is crying out there that we have many educated people, but who are unemployed. Unless we are able to sit down and see what the root cause of such unemployment is, we will never cure the problem. We are discussing a very important issue here which is trade imbalances between countries: Kenya and the rest of the world. Once it does not favour Kenya, it leads to unemployment. If we address this, we are able ... view
• 24 Jul 2019 in National Assembly: As I support this Motion, I urge our Government to look into the products that we make locally. I must make a case for my constituency where we have a lot of agricultural crops in the 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. view
• 24 Jul 2019 in National Assembly: market. We have lots of maize, beans, green grams, et cetera . We also keep livestock. We do not have a lot of fish but this is also an area we can explore. At the end of the day, we will be able to export more than we can export and the deficit would be cured. I, therefore, support this Motion and urge the House to adopt the same so that we can put mechanisms in place to ensure that our country has positive trade balance and not the deficit we are talking about today. With those remarks, I support. view