Dr. Oburu Odinga

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 1401 to 1410 of 1641.

• 12 Aug 2009 in National Assembly: The Law of Diminishing Returns has already crept into 25 per cent of land in this country. Therefore, it is high time that Kenya turned to Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL). When we talk of ASAL we are not talking about northern Kenya alone. There are many other parts of this country that are also arid or semi-arid. Even some areas in Nyanza Province, where I come from, we have rainfall of below 300 millimetres per annum. This matter has actually been discussed and agreed on in this House, that those areas also fall within the policies of ASAL development. view
• 12 Aug 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, investment in those areas need not necessarily come from the Government. I was an employee of the Government. I used to be a civil servant. I used to work in the Ministry of Planning, where I was in charge of the Department of Arid and Semi-Arid Lands development. At that time, we attracted a lot of funds from donors, because donors are very keen on the development of ASAL areas. In fact, in Turkana District, the Norwegians were funding almost all departments of Government Ministries to the extent that the Government became negligent. The Government ... view
• 12 Aug 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if amended as proposed by me, the Motion will read as follows:- view
• 12 Aug 2009 in National Assembly: THAT, noting the past and continued under-development of the Northern Kenya; aware that because of the prolonged neglect, the entire region has lagged behind in development compared to other parts of Kenya; cognizant of the fact that the inhabitants of the region are taxpayers with equal human and legal rights like other Kenyans entitled to all the services provided by the Government, including adequate security and infrastructural facilities such as road network to open up the region; appreciating the efforts of the Grand Coalition Government in establishing the Ministry for Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands as a ... view
• 11 Aug 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, I wish to seek your indulgence to allow me to get more information on this matter. I request that I answer this Question on Thursday afternoon. view
• 11 Aug 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, we are not dodging this Question. I have an answer which is not very satisfactory to me. I want to give the hon. Member a satisfactory answer. We will definitely give it on Thursday afternoon, this week. view
• 11 Aug 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to reply. (a)The Government has not opened KRA offices in towns like Kitale, Kapenguria and Lodwar in view of the cost effectiveness of running the offices in these stations. (b) The KRA is currently implementing an Integrated Tax Management System (ITMS) programme which calls for online service provision. To this end, taxpayers will not need to travel to KRA offices for these services. The KRA will assess the effectiveness of the online service programme with a view to exploring the possibility of opening additional offices should the business/economic activity warrant the move. view
• 11 Aug 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, there used to be Government offices in Kitale and Kapenguria. However, when the road licensing was abolished in 2006, the Government found that the effectiveness of the officers who were based in those stations were underutilized. Because of this, the Government introduced mobile services. As far we are concerned, we have not noted that has led in loss of money. We are only aware that this is giving service to the people who require it conveniently, so that they do not have to travel all the way. But we go to them using mobile services on designated ... view
• 11 Aug 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Government is trying to introduce IT villages. We want Kenyans to be computer literate so that they do not have to spend so much time going to sort out their tax matters. We are also assessing the effectiveness of these services in the short term. If we find that this service is not very effective in delivering services, we will consider opening more offices. This will depend on the effectiveness of the delivery of the services. view
• 11 Aug 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, the assessment is ongoing and will be completed very soon. We hope that hon. Members will use the IT system very effectively. The use of IT is the way the whole world is going. I know it might not be quite effective from the view