Soita Shitanda

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 111 to 120 of 148.

• 29 Apr 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to second the Motion. view
• 28 Apr 2009 in National Assembly: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I also wish to support the amendment. As I sat here, looking at you issuing your Communication from the Chair, I could see that you were at great pains trying to define and describe what “Government” is. We are having many problems trying to interpret law in this House. We have had this impasse because of our different interpretations of the National Reconciliation and Peace Accord and the Constitution of Kenya, and yet this Parliament boasts of quite a number of lawyers. In fact, the National Reconciliation and Peace Accord was drafted by lawyers from ... view
• 22 Apr 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, after your speech yesterday, and that of His Excellency the President, there was a sigh of relief across the country in the hope that this Parliament will conduct its affairs in a very different manner. However, what is emerging now is like we are back to business as usual. view
• 22 Apr 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, what our colleagues are calling consultation is actually not consultation. They are just jostling for positions. Some of us have information that the previous House Business Committees have always had problems of quorum because people jostle for these positions. However, when they are appointed to those positions they do not attend those meetings at all. I am sure some of the Members who are holding this House because of the so-called consultation are some Members who have been on former House Business Committees. Some of them have never attended these meetings. view
• 22 Apr 2009 in National Assembly: So, as we retreat for the so-called consultation, I would wish to urge my colleagues, especially those who have already served on this Committee, to give a chance to new Members who have never served before. Also, this is just the first committee we are trying to constitute. We have about 28 other committees that we will constitute. If this is a pointer to what will happen to the 28 committees, then we will be here for the remaining three years just constituting committees. So, on that note, in as much as I want to support that we go for ... view
• 6 Aug 2008 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on 29th July, 2008, Dr. Khalwale stood on a point of order requesting to know why the Government had changed its mind about the sale of non-strategic Government houses in the districts to civil servants. I wish to respond to that request as follows. Prior to July, 2001, the Government provided subsidised housing to its employees through allocation of Government owned or leased houses or paid them house allowances. This arrangement provided a number of challenges that included inequity in the provision and distribution of housing which led to only 12 per cent of the civil ... view
• 6 Aug 2008 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am finishing. There were also objections raised by local authorities, which argued that the houses in their municipalities should be transferred to the local authorities which were holding them in trust for the residents of those areas. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, in line with the objectives of the Civil Servants Housing Scheme Fund, we have, to date, constructed 296 houses in Nairobi, which have already been sold. In addition, we have 526 housing units under construction. These houses are not confined to senior civil servants alone. They are being sold to all cadres of ... view
• 6 Aug 2008 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I do not foresee any legal issue arising where the Government has not made any offer yet. What we did is that we advertised the houses for sale, and people submitted applications. We have not made any offer to any civil servants. The decision to rescind the sale of Government houses was guided more by the need to have these houses reserved for serving civil servants and future civil servants. On the second issue, it is true that some civil servants have developed the houses in which they are living, or invested in them. In such ... view
• 6 Aug 2008 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, first of all, I want to August 6, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2369 apologise to civil servants for the long duration we took before we made the decision not to sell the houses. Secondly, I know that there are some civil servants who took loans and paid deposits for the houses. The consolation is that there is money available for them to take in form of loans and build houses. We are also building houses in Nairobi. Any civil servant can buy a house in Nairobi, irrespective of whether one is working in Mombasa or Kakamega. So, ... view
• 5 Aug 2008 in National Assembly: Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. view