Can you ring the Quorum Bell?

You can stop the Bell. We now have quorum. We quorate.

The Chairman of the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF).

The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

I think I saw something that I had approved. You can check at the Table Office. Let us have the Chairman of the Select Committee on Delegated Legislation, Hon. Kamket.

Hon. Speaker, I beg to lay the following Paper on the Table of the House: Report of the Committee on Delegated Legislation on the consideration of the Crops (Coffee) General Amendment Regulations 2021. I thank you.

Next Order!

Hon. Speaker, I beg to give Notice of the following Motion: THAT, this House adopts the Report of the Committee on Delegated Legislation on its consideration of the Crops (Coffee) General Amendment Regulations 2021 laid on the Table of the House of Wednesday, 1st December 2021, and pursuant to Section 18 of the Statutory Instruments Acts 2013 and Standing Order No. 210(4)(b), annuls in its entirety the Crops (Coffee) General Amendment Regulation 2021 published as Legal Notice No.104 of 2021.

Very well. Next Order.

The first Question is by the Member for Cherangany, Hon. Joshua Kutuny.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I rise to ask Question No.483/2021 to the Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries: (i) Considering the drought ravaging several parts of the country, could the Cabinet Secretary clarify whether the Government intends to purchase maize from farmers currently experiencing a bumper harvest for fortification of the Strategic Food Reserve (SFR)? (ii) How much money has the Government allocated towards purchase of maize from farmers under the SFR and could the Cabinet Secretary confirm the preparedness of the National Cereals and Produce Board to purchase maize from farmers as an emergency intervention? (iii) What is the quantity of maize that the Government is planning to purchase from farmers and at what prices? (iv) What is the quantity of maize currently stored in silos countrywide, and how much has been used under SFR to mitigate the current drought crisis? (v) In view of the persistent rains that typically cause post-harvest losses, is the Government going to provide free maize/grain drying services to farmers to avert the post-harvest losses? The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker.

Hon. Members, as you know, the House is scheduled to go on recess tomorrow. I can see there are quite a number of Questions, but these are essentially for bongapoints because Questions die with a session.

Your Question will be replied before the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock, but it will die a natural death. The next Question is by the Member for Keiyo South, again, for bonga points . Hon. Rono.

Hon. Speaker, we hope to resurrect them. I rise to ask Question No.517/2021to the Cabinet Secretary for Petroleum and Mining: (i) Could the Cabinet Secretary explain the progress, if any, of the measures to ensure resumption of operations at Kerio Valley Fluorspar Mining in Elgeyo-Marakwet County, which closed in 2016? (ii) Could the Cabinet Secretary provide the details of investors, if any, who have expressed interest in undertaking mining activities in Kerio Valley and stipulate the measures the Ministry has put in place to facilitate the said investors carry out the said activities? (iii) Could the Cabinet Secretary explain the progress made in implementing the Presidential Directive of June 2013, regarding compensation of persons who were displaced 40 years ago, to pave way for the establishment of Fluorspar mining at the particular area? I wish to reiterate that should these Questions die, we will resurrect them. I thank you, Hon. Speaker.

Hon. Rono, death is for sure. It is up to you to resurrect it. Hon. Kutuny is not happy about the death, but it is very sure.

Hon. Speaker, this is an issue that we had discussed with the Chair. However, we have had a lot of challenges with the Executive responding to Questions. Your statement can give them a leeway of undermining the House. We need to hold these people responsible. This is a very serious matter, but you are giving them an exit way. We need to bring the Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries to respond.

Very well. It is a fact that you are going on recess tomorrow. Ordinarily, we give people we require to appear or to respond to Questions, at least, a week. A week from today, we will be happily on recess. It is only fair that we tell all Kenyans that we will be on recess. This is not to give anybody leeway, but it is the truth because anyone can look at our website and they will see that we will be on recess. However, as Hon. Rono said, resurrection is the route. Hon. Kutuny, resurrection it is. Therefore, Hon. Rono’s Question will be replied to before the Departmental Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. The next Question is by the Member for North Imenti, Hon. Rahim. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I would like to ask Question No.519/2021 to the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and Coordination of National Government: (i) What steps has the Ministry taken to ensure that Mr. Lewis Muthuri of ID No.26369584, who was allegedly abducted by security officers on 11th October, 2021 near Mulanthankari Chief’s Camp in Kibachia Village, Kiamwitari Division in Imenti North Constituency, has been located and re-united with his family? (ii) What is the status of investigations into the said abduction as reported in Meru Police Station on 13th October 2021 vide OB. No.98/13/10/2021? (iii) What measures has the Ministry put in place to address increased cases of mysterious disappearances of persons across the country? Hon. Speaker, this is a weighty matter. We sit together in the Committee on House Rules and Procedures. I would suggest that we probably need to look at the Standing Orders on how these Questions would not die. Otherwise, these kind of Questions on disappearance need to be brought up. I would not mind if the Chairperson will give an answer via email or any other platform while we are on recess. This is someone who went missing and has not been found up to today. This is very urgent.

The only challenge is that the Chairman will also be on recess. You do not want him not to serve his people of Limuru. Chairman, you can respond to the issue.

Hon Speaker, just like you rightfully observed, tomorrow we are going on recess without a doubt. If I had the facts in my hands, I would address the issues. But this entails me to take the information to the Cabinet Secretary to respond. By the time it comes back, we will already be in recess. Hon. Speaker, I want to concur with the route you have talked about of resurrecting the matter or better still seeing the Cabinet Secretary to resolve the issue without having to read the statement or answers here.

Very well. Take it up, you can juggle between representing the people of Limuru and dealing with the Cabinet Secretary to get a response. If you do that, Hon Dawood is ready to receive the answer by email or such other modus. The next Question is by the Member for Nyando.

Thank you, very much Hon Speaker. I also reckon the inevitable natural death of this Question. But I can assure you because I am advantaged by the dictates of time on this, I will resurrect it. Additionally, I also recognise that we have some digital challenges with our Information and Communications Technology (ICT), but I do not think this compromises the Hansard, and attendance bonga points. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

My Question No.520/2021 is addressed to the Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Culture and Arts. (i) What steps is the Ministry taking to implement stringent measures to weed out unregistered travel agents, who dupe young people in to paying hefty sums of money christened as facilitation and registration fees with regard to the upcoming Commonwealth Games and Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup in 2022? (ii) What measures has the Ministry put in place to ensure that Kenyan citizens attending such events are protected from becoming victims of human trafficking and harmful labour practices? The Commonwealth games will be held in Birmingham, London. The FIFA is an abbreviation of the French words ‘Fédération Internationale de Football Association’ and the World Cup will be held in Qatar. Thank you, Hon. Speaker.

Yes, certainly. The Member for Seme drew your attention to the bonga points fédération internationale. The Question will be responded to before the Departmental Committee on Sports, Culture and Tourism. Next Question is by the Member for Mwingi Central, Hon Gideon Mulyungi. He wrote to request for deferment. Hon Kutuny was to ask the Question on his behalf. Hon Kutuny.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker, as you have directed or indicated, I am sure this will also give me bonga points in Mwingi Central if that is the case. I was requested by Hon. Gideon Mulyungi, Member for Mwingi Central, to ask Question 522/2021 to the Cabinet Secretary for Labour and Social Protection. (i) What measures has the Ministry put in place to ensure that senior citizens who have already been enrolled into the Cash for Older Persons’ Program in Mwingi Central Constituency receive their stipends in a timely manner? (ii) When will the older persons who have been registered into the programme in Mwingi Central Constituency, but are awaiting the activation of their accounts be admitted into the programme? (iii) What measures has the Ministry put in place to ensure that eligible persons are automatically registered and admitted into the program on a continuous basis upon attainment of the prescribed age across the country and particularly in Mwingi Central Constituency?

The Question will be replied to before the Departmental Committee on Labour and Social Welfare. The last Question is by the Member for Sirisia, Hon John Waluke?

I rise to ask Question No.524/2021, directed to the Cabinet Secretary for Education. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

(i) What is the Government’s policy on establishment, closure and merging of some of the public universities in the country? (ii) Could the Cabinet Secretary clarify the role of the World Bank in the ongoing clamour for closure or merging some of the public universities in the country in a bid to address the financial challenges facing these institutions? (iii) What steps is the Government taking to address the overlapping mandates by the said educational institutions and to consolidate them to improve efficiency in public spending?

The Question will be replied to before the Departmental Committee on Education and Research. Hon. Members, I wish to welcome and recognise the presence in the Speaker’s Gallery of students from Flamingo Secondary School, Nakuru County. They are welcome to observe the proceedings of the National Assembly this afternoon. Hon. Wamunyinyi.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I give my apologies. This does not normally happen and is unusual. Hon. Speaker, I beg to lay the following Paper on the Table of the House: Report of the Select Committee on National Government Constituency Development Fund on the stalled project of the Kenya Medical Training College - Taveta Campus.

Very well. Next Order!

Order, Members! Order! Debate on this Bill was concluded. What remained is for the Question to be put, which I hereby do.

Member for Emurua Dikirr, if you could just sit next to Hon. Kutuny. He is not harmful.

Again, Hon. Members, debate on this Bill was concluded yesterday. What remained is the question to be put. I proceed to do so.

Hon. Members, debate on this Motion was also concluded. This is the approval of nominees to the Kiambaa Constituency the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) committee. Before I put the Question, it is important to find out whether the Member of Kiambaa who is concerned with the Motion is present. Is the Member for Kiambaa in the Chamber?

He cannot have stepped out. Did he contribute? Hon. Ichung’wah, let the young man understand that he is supposed to be here. I will not put the Question until the Member is here so that he understands. He came to Parliament just the other day. Now, why these bad manners of coming in and going out? He thinks this is going to be the streets. I will defer that one to tomorrow when he is there. If he does not come, the Question will not be put. It is him who should be in the forefront of ensuring that members of his committee are approved. Now, why should the other Members be the ones to approve his nominees? The young man should be told. This is the problem, and I have always told Members, that these are some of the people that need to be taught things. Even when they make telephone calls, they are the ones who say “I am honourable so and so”. How do you honour yourself? You should give your name and let the other person honour you. Maybe you are not honourable. You know? Let him come to the House and participate. He should be here to participate in this. So, if he decides to go and participate in the village, let him remain in the village. That Motion is deferred.

Of course, he risks the Motion being deferred to next year. It may have to suffer the same fate as the others which are going to die a natural death. So, let the young Member be told that business is transacted here in the House, not out there in the village. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Next Order.

Hon. Members, when the House adjourned earlier in the day and according to the records, the following Members were on the list in the order that I am going to read their names, to contribute, namely, Hon. Hulufo Oda, Hon. Ali Athman, Hon. Arbelle Marselino, Hon. Odanga Makokha, Hon. Kihara Kimani, Hon. Mwamkale Kamoti, Hon. Luyai Amisi, Hon. Ichung’wah Kimani and Hon. Robi Nyamabe. The Members were in the House to contribute to this debate, and I will follow that order. So, the first Member to contribute is Hon. Hulufo Oda.

Thank you, for the opportunity to contribute to the Speech made by His Excellency yesterday, in accordance with Article 132 of our Constitution. I thank His Excellency for honouring his constitutional obligation of addressing a Joint Sitting of the two Houses of Parliament. His Excellency is required to provide progress on achievement of the principles highlighted under Article 10 in our Constitution, as well as updating us on international obligations. The Speech of His Excellency mainly centred on economic progress. He compared what he had achieved over the eight years that he has been our President with what previous Governments had done, including the colonial Government, Kenyatta’s Government, Mzee Moi’s Government and President Kibaki’s Government. On infrastructural development, he indicated that in eight years, he did almost equal kilometres of tarmac road that were cumulatively done by the four administrations which preceded him. We appreciate that parts of this country which had never seen tarmac roads have received some kilometres of tarmac. In our case at the county headquarters in Isiolo Town, we benefitted from several kilometres of tarmac under the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA). But if we look at equity in how this infrastructure is distributed across the country, you will realise that the rural parts of ASAL areas and also ASAL counties are disadvantaged. Most of this development is happening either in high potential areas or in the case of ASAL areas, around urban areas. For instance, in my constituency, an entire sub-county called Merti has no inch of tarmac road. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Therefore, when you look at this progress against our national values like equity, you realise that there are things that need to be corrected. In terms of energy, we have had so many households in the ASAL areas including my constituency, being connected to electricity. I am happy to report that we are using green energy in most of these areas. Actually, 70 per cent of our energy as a county is generated from green sources. That is a good thing. One thing which I expected His Excellency to focus on which I did not hear him mention is the state of security or in our case, insecurity. We have several incidents of extrajudicial killings. We have incidents of people disappearing, particularly from the Coast and most parts of our northern counties. These disappearances include members of the disciplined forces. In my constituency, for instance, in the last two years including even this year, some members of the disciplined forces, people who were serving in the National Police Service, disappeared without trace. We also have ethnic conflicts which have not been managed well, for example, Marsabit. It is something which is not supposed to happen in a country that has a functional Government. If you look at Samburu, for example, especially Samburu North, we have issues of insecurity. It is the same with Laikipia. In my case, in Merti Sub-county, we have serious problems. I also expected His Excellency to update us on what the Government has done in drought response. At the moment, drought is affecting us. We have not seen the Kshs1.5 billion which he indicated had been set aside for livestock offtake in many of our constituencies. As a result, we have lost almost 50 per cent of our livestock, particularly cattle and sheep. So, some of the things His Excellency mentioned have not been implemented properly as a result of laxity on the part of the people he has assigned in the Cabinet and at the level of principal secretaries.

In the order that I read out, the next one is Hon. Ali Athman.

Asante, Mhe. Spika. Ningependa kuchukua fursa hii kuungana na wenzangu kumshukuru Mhe. Rais na kumpongeza pakubwa kwa Hotuba yake hapo jana katika Bunge hili. Ni dhahiri shahiri kuwa mengi yaliyozungumzwa na Mhe. Rais ni mambo ambayo yameonekana na Wakenya. Jambo moja kubwa ambalo lilishuhudiwa na Wakenya katika Bunge lililopita nikikumbuka vyema ni kuwa katika shughuli kama hii ya Hotuba ya Rais, Bunge lilikuwa na taharuki kubwa na bughudha nyingi sana kutokana na hali za kisiasa. Ukweli ni kwamba, jana kulishuhudiwa utulivu uliotokana na ushirikiano mwema kati ya Mhe. Rais Uhuru Kenyatta na wapinzani wake. Hata hivyo, ningependa kumwambia Mhe. Rais kwamba katika kutembea na hawa viongozi, afahamu kuwa mambo ya siasa ni kuwa unapojaribu kutengeza hili, usiharibu lingine. Naamini pakubwa kuwa haya yamepatikana kupitia ushirikiano wake mwema na Naibu wake, Mhe. William Ruto. Imedhihirika wazi kuwa maswala ya miundo msingi pamoja na barabara zinazojengwa Nairobi na Mombasa katika maeneo ya Kipevu na Changamwe kuelekea airport ni juhudi za Mhe. Rais, akisaidiana na Naibu wa Rais, katika Serikali hii inayoongozwa na hao wawili. Hali halisi kuhusu mengi ambayo yamezungumziwa na Mhe. Rais imeonekana na Wakenya, lakini bado tuko na changamoto za hapa na pale. Nikizungumzia eneo Bunge langu la Lamu Mashariki katika Kaunti ya Lamu, tunashukuru Mhe. Rais kwa juhudi zake. Kuna barabara ambazo zimetengenezwa kutoka Garsen hadi Mokowe. Rais ametilia mkazo maswala ya Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport Corridor (LAPSSET). Kuna umuhimu mkubwa katika hali hizi kuzingatiwa na kuwa karibu na washauri watakaotoa ushauri mwafaka wa kumaliza hilo jambo ambalo wamelifanya kwa njia nzuri. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Ningependa kumwambia Mhe. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta kuwa, mbali na kuona miradi mingi ya barabara ikifanyika, katika Eneo Bunge la Lamu Mashariki, hakuna hata kilomita moja ya lami. Nimeweza kulileta jambo hili mara kadhaa katika Bunge hili na kuliwasilisha kwa wahusika wakuu. Kama viongozi kutoka Lamu, tumeshuhudia ujenzi wa LAPSSET. Ni matarajio makubwa kuwa kutokana na malengo ya ujenzi wa poti ile, Serikali hii na Rais watawapea kipao mbele vijana wetu wa Lamu katika nafasi zitakazopatikana mahali pale. Hayo ndiyo mambo ambayo yanafaa kuwa na mwongozo mwema katika Serikali hii tunayo. Tatizo kubwa ambalo liko na yafaa tulizingatie ni kuwa katika yote haya yanayofanyika, pesa zinazotumika katika miradi mingi ni pesa za madeni ya mikopo inayochukuliwa kutoka kwa mataifa ya nje. Kuna umuhimu wa Serikali kuhakikisha ya kwamba tumedhibiti madeni haya kwa sababu ya siku zijazo. Vile vile, kutokana na haya, ni muhimu Serikali iwe na mikakati mwafaka ya kupambana nayo. Kwa mfano, Mhe. Rais alilizungumzia swala la ukame. Twajua kwamba kuna ukame katika sehemu nyingi nchini na…

Let us have Hon. Arbelle Marselino.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to add my voice to the President’s State of the Nation Address. Having listened keenly to the Speech by the President of the Republic of Kenya, I noted that he was confident, eloquent and relaxed. He won our confidence and the confidence of Kenyans at large that he is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. I would like to congratulate our President for having addressed this Parliament and Kenyans at large. He touched on various aspects, namely, the double-digit growth of our economy that everybody is seeing, and the road networks like the underpasses and bypasses. On the road networks, we have seen tarmac roads deep in the rural areas. Kenyans at large thank the President and his administration for achieving all these. The President addressed the issue of health. He said that we only have a handful of level 4 and level 5 hospitals in the country. After the introduction of the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), citizens in the informal sector in Kibera, Mukuru kwa Reuben and Mukuru kwa Njenga appreciate being called Kenyans. He mentioned that he visited one area and found only one clinic serving mothers who had gone there for delivery. A mother would only spend time there until she delivered. Immediately after she delivered, she would be discharged to go home so that another mother could occupy that bed. The President will leave behind a legacy from all these good things that his administration has done. However, people say that the former President, His Excellency Mwai Kibaki, did a wonderful job. Many Kenyans pray that he comes back. In fact, if we are to rate presidents who took office, Uhuru Kenyatta has done more than Mwai Kibaki. Having listened to his Speech, the livestock industry was not sufficiently addressed, bearing in mind the ravaging drought affecting the pastoralist-dominated areas. We have not been receiving rains and when we do, they are light. Also, when we have rains, there are consequences. For example, our livestock die in numbers. So, I want to appeal to our President and his Government to put measures in place, so that the affected families can be compensated in one way or another. The menace of cattle rustling and tribal conflicts in Marsabit have also not been addressed sufficiently. With those few remarks, I congratulate the President and pray for him to live long. I pray that as we transition to the next Government, we get a leader like Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta as our President.

Hon. Odanga. Leader of the Minority Party, have you contributed? The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

I have not.

If the Leader of the Minority Party wants to contribute, of course, he takes precedence. Given that Hon. Odanga is absent, he loses his opportunity. Let us have the Leader of the Minority Party.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute and register my thanks to the President’s Speech yesterday. We are all aware that this is a requirement of the Constitution. Article 132 of the Constitution is specific and requires the President to once every year, report, in an Address to the Nation, on measures that have been taken and progress made in terms of realising provisions of Article 10 of the Constitution on the principles and values of governance. So, we expected the President to fulfil, as a bare minimum, some elaboration on devolution, national unity, the rule of law and human rights. Besides that, the President is also supposed to submit to Parliament a report on security. How safe we are as a nation. When we weigh in on the President’s Speech, we are supposed to look at the constitutional provisions and ask ourselves whether he met the constitutional threshold of explaining to the nation measures that have been taken towards realisation of these requirements. He also took his time to tell the nation what his Government has achieved in the eight years plus that he has been at the helm of the leadership of this country. I would say that President Uhuru Kenyatta has had two Governments, namely, one which I usually call Jubilee I and then Jubilee II. He elaborated what he has done since he took oath to serve the people of Kenya as the President. In terms of meeting the constitutional threshold, he did well in terms of talking about national unity. That was his opening remarks. He spoke passionately about the need for this country to be together. Even though we compete and sometimes disagree, we must remember that Kenya is bigger than each one of us individually and collectively. This country must be bequeathed to future generations intact. We should leave it without destroying the social fabric of this nation. The President was very clear on that. He also talked passionately about devolution. He even mentioned that his Government has transferred, not just 15 per cent of the national revenue, which is the constitutional minimum, but 32 per cent. Although it is based on historical data, I think it is a step in the right direction. What I picked is that the President was so passionate that we lost an opportunity to allocate more resources to counties through a constitutional amendment, something that would not be changed by any individual. Whether you like the Constitution or not, if we embed the provision that the minimum allocation is 35 per cent, it would have to go to the counties. So, this is an opportunity that we lost as a nation. Those who have been telling us that we do not need a constitutional amendment must reckon with the fact that if we agreed to amend the Constitution to anchor the 35 per cent, then it is the people of Kenya who would have benefitted from additional resources that would have been taken to the grassroots to spur economic growth. For this country to realise meaningful economic growth, we must engineer and spur rural economies. That is where there is potential. The biggest potential in this country in terms of productivity is in rural areas. It is not in the usual traditional urban settings. The urban settings are overstretched. That is why we have slums in our cities, a thing that we must discourage. I totally agree with the President that we missed an opportunity to strengthen devolution through a constitutional amendment. The President took a lot of time talking about terms of his legacy, and we need to listen and understand him. I heard some of my colleagues say that he dwelt a lot on what he has done, which is not a constitutional requirement. But we must understand that probably this is the last The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

State of the Nation Address President Uhuru Kenyatta will give to the people of Kenya. Therefore, it is in order and appropriate for him to also tell the country loudly, when the whole world is watching, what he has done. It cannot be denied that this Government has performed well in terms of infrastructural development, including roads, railway and port improvement. We would be very mean to President Uhuru Kenyatta, if we said that he has done little. He has done a lot. The only thing Kenyans have been talking about, and that is where I feel a little disappointed in the President’s Speech, is that he should have taken time to talk about the debt level in this country. We did all these infrastructural development, but at a cost. This cost is not just on the present generation. It is going to be on future generations. The infrastructural developments are likely to bring returns going forward. The President should have taken time to say that we have incurred a lot of debt and we are heavily indebted as a country, but based on economic projections, after three, four or five years, this country is going to stabilise and we are likely to harvest returns on our investment. The President missed an opportunity to speak to the people of Kenya who have been complaining about the high debt levels. He should have, with facts and figures, presented to this House that although we are struggling to pay our debts, based on the returns that we are likely to realise in the coming years, we will pay our debts. That is an opportunity the President missed. I was very happy. We have been fed with a lot of propaganda, hearsay and misrepresentation of facts that from 2018 to date, after the ‘handshake’, attention of the Government shifted to some animal called BBI. Personally, I have not seen that animal. I saw a well-crafted proposed Bill which was taken to Kenyans. I saw a million signatures and not animals. I saw it go to counties and they approved it and still did not see animals. It was brought to Parliament and we approved it with overwhelming majority yet we were not animals, but they call it “animal”. The attention has been shifted and the country lost track. What did the President say here? That for the first time in the history of this country, in the Second Quarter of 2021, we registered the highest economic growth ever witnessed comparable to none in the region, of 10.1 per cent. That is courtesy of the handshake, peace and the calm political environment that we are seeing today. Where do the people who tell us that the “handshake” disrupted Government functions and programs get their records from? If Government functions and programs were not running, how can you achieve 10 per cent economic growth? Let us face facts. It is because of the peace that this country has held its ground in terms of economic fundamentals and realised such accelerated economic growth with the COVID-19 Pandemic ravaging the whole world, where the world economies rank. If we did not have peace in this country and COVID-19 Pandemic at the same time, we would have lost the economy of this country. I, therefore, want to speak to those n ay sayers, prophets of doom, people who are interested in their selfish interests to acquire raw power that, please, do not discredit something that has brought peace and stability to this country. If there is a President who has been active physically, inspecting projects since I became an adult in this country, it is Uhuru Kenyatta. The late President Moi was very active, but for different reasons. He was active in playing politics and not in supervising development. President Kibaki could not leave his office and State House. Probably, he did well because he delegated sufficiently. However, President Uhuru is always out there. You will see him in Kawangware, Kibra, Lamu, comes to Kisumu even without giving the local leadership notice, Naivasha and Limuru. He is a very active President. If, without cooperation from our Deputy President, he could do all these things, assuming his Deputy had cooperated and avoided politics for four years and only do so for six months as he wanted, how much could we have achieved as a country? If we can achieve 10.1 percent with an absentee The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Deputy President, what about if we had an active Deputy President, very cooperative working with the President? Probably, we could have achieved 15 per cent. That takes me to this fundamental question which we must talk about. For us to have stability in this country, there is need to ask ourselves, going forward, the experiment we saw with the President and the Deputy President, is it what we want to see again in this country? If we are not going to amend our Constitution, then presidential candidates need to think twice and get their deputies or running mates with a chemistry that is perfect and not one that is forced by circumstances; a chemistry that only survives because there is danger ahead. Get someone you can work with, who will not undermine you and whom you can easily delegate to without any fear or favour. I do not think Kenyans are interested anymore in seeing these kinds of shenanigans that we saw in Jubilee II. Please, do not blame the “handshake” for the sake of it. It came about because of one simple fact, that we had almost two countries in one, but the two leaders decided to shake hands. We thought both sides would reign on their lieutenants to follow. There are certain things that I did not like. I am sure you would not have contemplated in the late 2017 that I would stand on the Floor of this House and say that Uhuru is a good President. Even greeting him was a problem. However, because my party leader told me: Hon. Mbadi, this is the direction to take. As a loyal servant and lieutenant, I followed. If I do not want to follow, I announce publicly that I have severed my relationship with my party leader. If I, however, still want to call him my party leader, presidential candidate and friend, then, I have found a way of working around him and what he believes in. I wanted to passionately talk about that matter. Honestly speaking, I am sure there is no Kenyan enjoying the kind of scenario we are in. Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC) is a very important organ in the governance of this country. It decides and determines the sharing of Government revenue between the national Government and county governments. You will, however, hear people boycotting IBEC because they do not like the President. Honestly speaking, if he is still the Deputy President of this country, then you must attend this function especially if it is IBEC and another. However, the Deputy President must demonstrate that he still wants to be the Deputy President of this country by working closely with the President. If not, you can just resign. For heaven sake, if I cannot perform my duties as a Member for Suba South, there is no need of earning a salary like a ghost worker. I am sure, Hon. Speaker, your conscience cannot allow you to earn a salary for the Office of the Speaker if you are not performing the functions of the Speaker. The way I know you, your conscience will not allow you. I am like you. My conscience too cannot allow me to earn a salary as the Leader of the Minority Party in this House, feed and not do my functions. We have had the worst Government in Jubilee II, non-functioning, leaving one person to run things and then the excuse is “my functions were taken and given to someone else”. Who is that someone else and was given by who? If it is the President who said so, just say no and continue doing your functions. I do not think Raila Odinga would give out my functions of the Minority Leader to any other Member, even Hon. Lilian Gogo here, and still claim I am the Minority Leader. Why am I then earning that salary? If he gives her my functions, I would resign so that I do not earn that salary. However, you cannot have your cake and eat it. You earn a salary, live in a Government’s house, hold political functions in a Government office; Deputy President’s Office, and you are claiming that you are still the DP, but your functions have been taken. It is a contradiction. Finally, let us be honest with ourselves. If you feel the Government has not performed, the President explained his achievements here, and he even talked about the Big Four Agenda. I listened to him and he acknowledged that on housing, they have not done very well. He, however, The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

said that they have done very well in universal healthcare. They have made tremendous progress with the support of this House. He also talked about food security and why he thinks they have not achieved. Not all objectives set will be met. However, if you feel the President does not perform, say so and stick to that lane. Hon. Speaker, you cannot say today that you did nothing and tomorrow change to again say that the Government has done very well. The following day, you are telling us that you will ride on your good achievement to win my next seat. How can I claim to have done very well in Suba South and at the same time say that I have not done very well, but tomorrow ask the electorates to reelect me because I have done so well? You will be causing confusion. That is the basic word. Alternatively, you are confused. Either you are confusing people or you are the one who is confused.

With those many remarks, I want to end my statement by saying that I thank the President for being candid, honest, and truthful. He opened his heart and even expressed his frustrations to us especially on the BBI. We will revisit the BBI once we assume power next year. There are good provisions in that document that we cannot let go. How can some constituencies like Othaya die? We must ensure that Othaya is protected even after the next general election. Thank you, Hon. Speaker.

While following the same list, let us have the Member for Mathioya.

Mathioya, JP): Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to add my voice to the President’s Speech. From the outset, I would like to support and congratulate His Excellency the President for his State of the Nation Address. I would like to say that the President touched on a lot of issues that have been accomplished in this nation over the last eight years of his administration. I do not want to go over all of them and we also know how long the Speech was because there were enormous issues. Many things have been accomplished in the last four years. A few of them did come out to me in a very special way. We know that we have had a very difficult time for the last two years and this country has had to struggle with the COVID-19 Pandemic. In my view, the way his administration handled the pandemic really stood out. It is really encouraging that we have contained the virus to a large extent and also grown the economy. We were told that in the third quarter, the economy was growing at more than 10 per cent. That is honestly exemplary for me. The President mentioned many sectors that his administration has accomplished, such as infrastructural development, namely, roads and the ports. We have an operational Port of Lamu. We have new berths that are working efficiently in Mombasa. We have a railway network that has been expanded across the country. We have new hospitals. The President mentioned that many hospitals have been built in the last few years and equipped by his administration. A lot has been done in the old hospitals and even though we have not come out of the pandemic yet, we have largely contained it. Hon. Speaker, Kenya is a leading country in green energy and that for me, is important. It is encouraging that we have ensured that many people in our rural areas are connected to electricity. A lot still continues to be done. In the water sector, a lot done has been done across the country and that is very welcome. I come from Mathioya which is an agricultural constituency. Tea and coffee are paramount and in the last few years, the prices have started to soar because of the structural changes that have been made to ensure that the farmer becomes paramount and we expand our buckets. We are selling coffee at almost Kshs100 or even more in some areas. Tea is already doing over 60 per cent of what we were earning in the last few years when it was declining. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

The Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) have not been left out. The injection of Kshs5 billion as seed capital for the SME credit guarantee schemes was quite touching because this is money that can be accessed by SMEs particularly those run by the youth. This matter must be pronounced, so that it can reach our youths in the rural areas in a better way. The President stated that his administration is enforcing the “buy Kenya, build Kenya” initiative. We have even seen a number of factories that were almost dead being uplifted and they are becoming very important sectors of our growth like the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC). As I conclude, I want to emphasise the need for peace. The need for unity and security in this country cannot be overemphasised by nothing else other than the handshake that happened and brought tranquility. In addition to that, it helped us to stabilise the country so that the growth that we yearn for continues.

While following the same list, let us have Hon. Kamoti Mwamkale, Member for Rabai.

Asante sana, Mhe. Spika kwa nafasi hii. Nasimama kujiunga na wenzangu kumpongeza Rais kwa Hotuba hii ambayo ni matakwa ya Sheria Kifungu 10 cha Katiba yetu. Rais ametekeleza yale ambayo ameweza kuyatekeleza na ni lazima yapelekwe kwa wananchi ama watu waambiwe kile ambacho kimefanyika. Kwanza, Mhe. Spika, nataka nimpongeze Rais kwa yale aliyofanya kwa upande wa miundo msingi ndani ya nchi hii. Miundo msingi ni infrastructure . Rais amejaribu ingawaje kuna mengine ambayo akiyafanya, atatekeleza ama atawacha wosia ulio kamili. Kwa bandari, Rais amejaribu. Bandari ya Mombasa ameipanua vizuri na imebadilika sura. Ametupatia pia bandari mpya Lamu. Kitu ambacho tunamuomba Rais akamilishe wosia wake ni kuhakikisha kwamba bandari hizi zinanufaisha wakaazi ambao wanazunguka bandari hizi. Kama watu wa Pwani, hicho ndicho kilio chetu. Ijapokuwa bandari imebadilika, kuna kazi ambazo zimehamishwa na masuala kama clearing and forwarding sasa zimeenda Naivasha. Tunamuomba Rais akamilishe wosia wake kwa kuhakikisha kwamba kazi ambazo zilikuwa zikifanywa ndani ya Bandari ya Mombasa, zinaendelea kufanywa na kutekelezwa pale. Vile vile, katika miundo msingi, tunashukuru kwamba ameleta Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) na tunaomba hiyo nayo ipewe maagizo. Isiwe tu ni lazima mizigo yote ifikishwe Naivasha hata kabla ya kushughulikiwa. Tunaomba ahakikishe kwamba mizigo inayobebwa ni yale ambayo haihitajiki ama wenyewe hawatoki Mombasa. Kwa wale ambao wanatoka Mombasa, mizigo ile ishukishwe Bandari la Mombasa. Huko ndio kujivunia. Wakenya watajivunia ya kwamba wana muundo msingi huu ambao unatunufaisha. Kwa upande wa mabarabara, tunamshukuru Mheshimiwa Rais. Ukienda Mombasa saa hii, ukifika Kibarani, kazi inaendelea. Tuna imani kwamba hii ikimalizaka, Mombasa itakuwa imebadilika. Hata tukimpongeza Rais Kibaki, ukweli wa mambo ni kuwa ukija kwa mambo ya miundo msingi, hakuna kwa sasa hivi ambaye ametekeleza na kubadilisha kama Rais Uhuru.

Sisi kama wakaazi wa Rabai, tunashukuru kwa kuwa barabara kutoka Jomvu hadi Kwambaje inamalizika. Ni barabara nzuri na tuna imani kwamba hata ile ingine ya kutoka Bamburi kuenda Ngondora pia itamalizika ili nasi wakaazi wa Rabai tujivunie. Tumekuwa na mapendekezo kwamba kuwe na barabara kutoka Bagamoyo mpaka Kibao Kiche ambayo itarahisisha mavuno ya wakaazi kufika kule ambako yanatakikana kufika.

Vile vile, tunampongeza Rais kwa upande wa afya. Amejaribu. Yote ambayo aliyoyaeleza hapa yamefanyika Nairobi. Tunataka akitengeneza zahanati zingine hapa, aende Kisumu na aende Pwani pia tuone zahanati zingine zikitengenezwa huko. Isiwe ndani ya Nairobi Kaunti na kwa majeshi peke yake. Hata wale wengine pia hawana mwingine wa kuangalia. Ni yeye tu. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Linda Mama ni jambo ambalo limegusa watu wengi. Sisi kama Wabunge huwa tunafuatwa na kila mtu wakati wanapokuwa wagonjwa. Hata mama akienda kujifungua anatufuata. Lakini Linda Mama imetupumzisha sisi Wabunge. Imepumzisha viongozi na inafanya kazi nzuri. Kwa hivyo, tunapongeza na tunasema: Mgalla muue na haki yake umpe. Jamani, hakuna aliye kamili. Aliyoyafanya Rais Kenyatta, yamegusa Wakenya. Tupende tusipende si lugha nzuri, lakini Mgalla muue, na haki yake umpe. Ahsante sana, Mhe. Spika.

Following the same list, the Hon. Luyai Amisi. This must be Caleb Amisi. He is not there. Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I also rise first to congratulate His Excellency the President on his, possibly, last or second last State of the Nation Address. Even as I appreciate many of the things that the President enumerated, there are things that we cannot take away from the President in terms of his gains, especially on infrastructural development. We all appreciate that this has also come at a cost, especially in terms of the public debt that we have laid on the shoulders of the Kenyan people. This infrastructural development was to anchor development that would enable Kenyans to grow further in terms of economic development, and be able to provide job opportunities for Kenyans. We have not been able to do that, especially post 2017.

I cannot fail to mention that many of the things the President enumerated yesterday are things that he was able to do in his first term from 2013 to 2017. Post 2017 is a story for another day, courtesy of what has been christened, 'The Handshake'. I know those who want to justify the “Handshake” may argue differently, but it is not the way to go, especially at a time like this when we are going into elections. That we allow people to use the electoral process to refuse to accept election results to justify a handshake and christen themselves as peacemakers. The President was at pains to try and justify the Handshake and claim that there was a constitutional moment. Respectfully, I said it yesterday and I want to repeat it again today. The aspirations for constitutional changes and the constitutional moments that the President speaks to was a constitutional moment whose aspirations were by the political class led by the President and his elder brother, the former Prime Minister. It had and still has nothing to do with the aspirations of the Kenyan people. The President touched on matters to do with the economy and actually went to claim that we are the sixth richest country in the Sub-Saharan Africa. Yes, it could be true. There could be a few Kenyans who would easily rank among the richest Africans in Sub-Saharan Africa and probably rank sixth as the richest in the world. Those are just a very small fraction of Kenyans. The majority of Kenyans are living in abject poverty; the cost of living is at its highest. I want to join those Members who faulted the crafters of the President's Speech. It looks like there are people in the Office of the President who were intent on embarrassing the President! It is not that they wrote for him a Speech that he could not complete because of it being lengthy, but it was also factually wrong! If you read Clause 164 and Clause 166 of that Speech, the President mentioned the KMC. I have heard the Member for Isiolo mention that he has not seen the Off-take Programme in his constituency. It begs the question: Where is that Off-take Programme happening? It could be in a few private ranches in the neighbourhood of Isiolo and Samburu and Kenyans may beg to know who the owners of those private ranches are!

The other thing he mentioned in that clause is about the savings that result from KMC. He enumerated that we are now saving Kshs30 million which translates to Kshs3.6 billion a year. The The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

President emphasised the fact of Kshs3.6 billion in a year. A saving of Kshs30 million would only translate to Kshs360 million annually, and not Ksh3.6 billion! Therefore, I want to plead with those who are eager to paint the President in picture that he is not, that as they write his speeches, let them also be reasonable. Let them be considerate not to paint the President in a bad picture like they did yesterday. With that, I want to reiterate that the constitutional moment you are being told was by the political class to benefit the political class. The constitutional moment that will come for the people Kenya... The people of Kenya will drive their own constitutional amendments that will benefit…

The last person on this list of Members who were present before 1.00 p.m and who were on the queue is Hon. Orobi Nyamabe. From the list of the nine who had been on the queue, it is Hon. Odanga, Hon. Luyai Amisi and Hon. Orobi, who are not present. So, if you look at the Motion on limitation of time, you did approve the Chair of the Departmental Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations and the Chairman of the Departmental Committee Labour and Social Welfare. The next Chairman is Hon. Mwathi. You have ten minutes; not five.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker. Allow me, with all humility, to first of all, congratulate His Excellency the President for the Speech that he gave us: the State of the Nation that was touching on various sectors. It was an all-round summary of what he has been able to do from 2013 to date. Specifically, it enumerated what his Government has continued to achieve and intends to achieve even before he finishes his term next year. I will speak on the issues of security but, most importantly, let me start by saying that I am lucky to have seen all the four Presidents since Independence. In my youth, I saw the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, who died peacefully in his sleep. I also saw and experienced the leadership of the late Hon. Daniel T. Arap Moi. I was here in this Parliament when His Excellency Mwai Kibaki was here and even now, I am here when our dear President Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta is the President. One thing I have realised, and I do not know whether it is our nature, is that other than the late President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta who died in his sleep while in office, for the rest, except President Uhuru, that is, Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi, and Mwai Kibaki, people were always complaining. In fact, I remember during the inauguration of His Excellency Mwai Kibaki, people threw mud at the late President Daniel Toroitich arap Moi only for them to claim a few months later that during his time, he had really worked hard. Sometimes, it is good to appreciate what has been done. Also, I was in the 10th Parliament when a Member stood and said that His Excellency President Kibaki was to be described as ‘General Kiguoya’, whatever that meant. Today, when I go across most parts of this country, I find people cherishing the times and deeds of His Excellency Mwai Kibaki. Hon. Speaker, I want to borrow from what I have seen in those two instances. When I hear people throwing stones and talking of how the current President has not performed, I measure that against his own speech which was factual. For starters, when the President said that he has done a dual carriageway from Machakos to Rironi in Limuru, that is a fact and not hearsay. Currently, when I go to Limuru, I use that dual carriageway. Before it came, one acre of land was going at Kshs10 million but, as we speak now, it is going for Kshs40 million. I heard some Members asking why he was talking about tarmac. Will we be cooking tarmac for our children? I want to give them some insight. If you have property, please, sell it because the prices have gone up. Sell a small piece of land if you do not need tarmac and you will get money to buy food. Just like the previous speaker has said, let us appreciate what the President has done.

I oversight the security sector and I do not want to hear people talking about the years 2013-2017 because I was not there. But I know something was done. Let me talk about what I The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

know from 2017. We have placed 12,000 graduates on internship program and my own son is a product of this program. Immediately they finish, they are either attached, taken or absorbed by Government ministries. This is one of the things the youth are appreciating. Not only are they going to school, but there is a youth program properly crafted by the Jubilee Government led by none other than Hon. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta. They are not only working during that internship, but they also get a stipend of Ksh25,000. So, they are able to take care of their welfare and that is why this program must be appreciated. Hon. Speaker, why should we not appreciate such deeds and stop talking about the debt we have. I have just come from a trip and I do not know any country in this world where Members do not go for trips. Members complaining about the debt have been saying we need to allocate more money for security and roads. Where will we get money when we have COVID-19 ravaging our economy? Yet, we want roads, water and schools! We are quick to criticise the President who is leading the Government for accumulating debt. Anyway, this is not his debt because by the time he came in, we also had debts. Let us say it as it is. On Monday, the President of the Republic of Kenya, His Excellency Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, presided over a passing out parade where recruits graduated. We now have 5,000 police officers who will give us security during next year’s general elections. It is not that he does not want to go home. He said: “My time will be up in August, but I want peace for the people who will be going for elections and that is why I am putting this in place.” I am sure the people heard him reveal that he is taking care of the welfare of police officers in terms of remuneration, benefits, insurance and so on. So, they are motivated. Hon Speaker, he has also done hospitals. In fact, the other day, my Committee went to Kanyonyo Hospital. I want to thank him because after we petitioned, we got Kshs240 million for the completion of that hospital. The police officers guarding our boundaries or borders have always suffered casualties. All the time they are taken to public hospitals where, probably, they do not get important attention required because of the specialised nature of their work. If you go to Kanyonyo, the hospital is there for everybody to see. Not only that! On Monday, he did a ground-breaking ceremony for another referral hospital in Mbagathi. This is the President they are saying is not working. I know he is working, especially after the handshake happened. Truth be told, before the President got together with the Deputy President, there was a lot of acrimony between the two communities. But he reached out. Some of us were wondering why. I can remember in 2010 during the Constitution referendum, I was in the NO side together with the Deputy President. I learnt something I did not know, when he reached out to him. He said we must forget what had happened and soldier on. He went against our own thinking and brought him on board so there could be peace. That is why I am asking: When he shook hands with the Right Hon. Raila Odinga, who is a Kenyan, why are some sections calling him mganga? Who is a

? We are all Kenyans and have equal rights. He can become the President. In fact, he will be the President because he is magnanimous enough to shelve all his ambitions and hold the nation together. So, I support the President when he says that we should work together as a nation. Let every Kenyan who thinks like him come out and build the nation. We should not just build tribes and ethnic groups because once we make a nation, our future generation will be proud…

Member for Teso North.

Thank you, very much, Hon. Speaker, for giving me this chance. I take this opportunity to commend and thank His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta for the State of the Nation Address he gave yesterday. Of course, it is mandated in Article 132 of the Constitution. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

I would like to focus on some areas like the values contained in Article 10 of the Constitution. The Report addressed some values dealing with human dignity, inclusivity and equity. Also, in his Address, His Excellency the President talked about infrastructure as a major component of what his Government has done. I confirm that as part of inclusivity and equity, Teso North and the Teso community at large, which is generally regarded as marginalised, have been considered in terms of infrastructure development. Since Independence, Teso has not had a single tarmac road other than the international road A104. For the first time during this term, two major roads have been constructed by the Government of His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta. The road from Busia to Malaba and the one from Malaba to Chepkemel are now complete. I used to struggle while driving and sometimes I would get stuck on the road. Today, I drive up to my house in Chepkemel. We need to appreciate what the Government has done. The other aspect that I wish to mention, and which His Excellency the President talked about it - and also the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Administration and National Security has dealt with - is political stability and security. Political stability is important for this country. The illustrations that His Excellency the President gave indicating the ups and downs that this country has gone through during elections clearly indicate that whenever we have elections, we lose a lot. We lost a lot in 1992 and 1997. Whenever we had unity and political stability like we did in 2002, we had big leaps in terms of economic and social development. The issue of political stability behooves the leadership of this country, this House and other political leaders to be truthful and embrace what brings our people together. I conclude with the issue of security, which the Chairperson has touched on. His Excellency the President indicated that for the first time, the country has gone beyond the United Nations (UN) standard of one police officer to 450 citizens in terms of the standard required internationally. That is courtesy of the recruitment of over 45,000 police officers to enhance security. I once again commend His Excellency the President.

Let us have the Member for Garissa Township.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker. The President came to this House yesterday in accordance with the Constitution and, more specifically, Article 132(1)(b). These are the fruits of the 2010 Constitution. As a former Leader of the Majority Party, I wish to state that there is absolutely no doubt that the Government of President Uhuru Kenyatta, in which I played a very key role, has had many enormous achievements, especially in the infrastructure and energy sectors, as well as Universal Health Care (UHC) in terms of free maternity. It also made sure that for the first time, since 2013, heavy investments have been made in our security sector. That is why Kenya is safer today than when President Uhuru Kenyatta took over. There have been investments in our intelligence and the equipment used by our security forces, the military, the Kenya Defence Forces and many others. When President Kibaki left in 2013, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) was collecting Kshs967 billion. When President Moi left office, they were collecting Kshs200 billion annually. I am sure that in 2020, the KRA has collected Kshs1.7 trillion. So, the achievements and footprints of this Government are found in each and every village in Kenya. Whether it is connectivity to electricity or water, that is not disputed. As the Legislature, we must say what the Government has done and what it has not. I would like to remind this House that when President Moi left, the annual collection was Kshs200 billion, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at that time was Kshs1 trillion, and the debt that he left us was The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Kshs620 billion. That was 60 per cent of the GDP. At that time, our population was 33.7 million people. When President Kibaki left office, the KRA had collected Kshs963 billion. That was a 380 per cent increase from what President Moi had left. Our GDP by then was Kshs6.3 trillion. That was a 545 per cent increase from what President Moi left at Kshs620 billion. He also left us with a debt of Kshs1.8 trillion, but he reduced it to 30 per cent of our GDP. In 2020, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration raised KRA’s annual collection to Kshs1.7 trillion, which was a 66 per cent growth. Our GDP in 2020 was Kshs8.7 trillion, which is a 31.8 per cent increase. However, our direct debt is at Kshs8.7 trillion and indirect debt, which is the one given to parastatals, is at Kshs3 trillion. As of today, we stand at a total debt of Kshs11.7 trillion. The achievements and legacy of President Uhuru Kenyatta are not for him to write about. He was quoted in the newspaper as saying: “My legacy”. President Uhuru Kenyatta’s legacy will be said by the people of Kenya and written by historians. The President did not touch on issues of corruption, debt, extrajudicial killings and disappearance of Kenyans due to the length of the speech. Maybe, he was not able to talk about those issues. I support the Speech. President Uhuru Kenyatta’s achievements are the Deputy President’s achievements. They are together and we will use them for the 2022 campaigns. You cannot deny us. We are one. What is good for Uhuru Kenyatta is good for Hon. William Ruto. If you support the handshake, you better look for your own track record.

Let us have the Member for Rangwe.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker. Interesting times, happenings and hearings. They say that they will use it for 2022. I should think that the Handshake has run away with it because when we get to a point where Hon. Duale is talking about having been together, there has been quite a bit of a mix-up. I take this opportunity to thank President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta for his well-articulated National Address on what he has done over eight years. Before I contribute to what transpired yesterday, I take this opportunity to thank Hon. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta as the President of the Republic of Kenya for the level of composure he has shown as a President. There are projects that we have seen in this country, especially in the last four years, which show that the President has done so much. But people still say that he has not done anything. He works so hard but people still want to criticise what he is doing. All the same, he has remained composed and continued working. He has worked hard. Yesterday, he laid it bare on the Floor of this House. Among other things, what he was talking about are things which can bee seen. I did not hear anybody negate what he said he has done. When His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta, the Fourth President of the Republic of Kenya retires from the Presidency, at least, for heaven’s sake, Kenyans will have seen what an expressway is. We are catching up with Dubai’s standards. If there is one thing, other than affordable healthcare, improved food security and improved education, I am looking for, then it is the day when it is going to take exactly 20 minutes to cover more than 40 kilometres in Nairobi. When we improve infrastructure, …

We need to consult in lower tones. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

When a man does a good job, he expresses what he has done with a lot of ease. Even the way he was delivering his Speech yesterday, I have never seen such a happy and calm President. I have never seen His Excellency Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta in his warmest demeanour. He was very relaxed because he knows that he has done a good job in the backdrop of destruction and noise about him not working. He delivered his Speech by saying: This is what I have done in 10 years. He talked about what he has done to reform our security sector. Which country can stay without improved security? He talked about the welfare of our security organs and what he has done in improving their living conditions. I want to make a special appeal to the President: Rangwe Sub-County does not have any police vehicles. Mr. President, please, when you talk about infrastructure or improving the police working conditions, my Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPD), my Officer Commanding Station (OCS) and my District Commissioner (DC) do not have vehicles. Mr. President, kindly intervene on this matter. You did well and you have done well. We will support you. The Handshake is there to live. My boss said that we support you and the word of Hon. Raila Amollo Odinga is law and whatever he says, we follow. Mr. President, if you still want our support, we will give it to you. Take it up from there and finish the race.

Member for Samburu.

Ahsante sana, Mhe. Spika kwa kunipatia nafasi ili niungane na wenzangu kumshukuru Rais wetu, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, kwa kazi ambayo amefanya. Mhe. Spika, kusema ukweli, Rais alitaja sekta zote katika nchi hii ambazo amefanyia kazi. Kila Mkenya ameona kile Mhe. Rais amefanya. Katika utawala wake, amefanya mengi. Ni vyema tujue kama Wakenya kuwa wakati alichukua usukani kama Rais, alipata wakati mgumu sana. Hii ni kwa sababu alichukua usukani akiwa bado na kesi kule Hague na pia hali ya usalama ilikuwa imedorora. Kwa hivyo, ameweza kufanya kazi miaka minne tu pekee. Katika miaka minne, kila Mkenya ameona kile Rais amefanya. Sisi kama Kaunti ya Samburu, kwa miaka hamsini, tulikuwa tukianza safari na kusema tunaenda Kenya. Hatukuwahi ona chochote ambacho wenzetu walikuwa wameona. Tumeona maendeleo haya wakati wa Rais Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta. Tumeona stima, lami na hati miliki za mashamba ambazo hatujaziona kwa miaka hamsini. Kenya imeona tofauti kubwa tangu Rais Uhuru achukue usukani. Rais alitaja idara ya usalama. Afisa wetu wanaweza kupata huduma za hospitali kila mahali. Sisi ndio tunawaona afisa wa serikali wakiumia wakati wa vita. Wanapopata ajali na kuumia, hakuna hospitali iliyo karibu ambayo wanaweza kupelekwa. Mambo hayo yote yametugusa mioyo. Rais anapostaafu, bado atakuwa na nafasi ya kuiangalia Kenya na macho mawili. Bado yeye ni mchanga na atakuwa akituangalia na ikiwa Kenya itaelekea pabaya, atairudisha pamoja. Jambo lingine ni lile la “ Handshake”. Nilikuwa kati ya wale waliotembea kaunti 47 tukitafuta umoja wa Kenya kama alivyotutuma Rais. Wakenya walitoa maoni ambayo wangependa kuwekwa katika sheria ili iwalinde. Inafaa kueleweka kuwa Rais hakuwa anatafuta mwanya wa kurudi katika Serikali au kubadilisha Katiba. Wakenya ndio walitaka mabadiliko yanayowahusu. Bado tunahitaji Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) irudi kwa sababu ni ya Wakenya; sio ya mtu binafsi. Wakenya ndio waliotoa maoni yao. Pia, tunashukuru Mhe. Raila Amollo Odinga kwa sababu hatungefika hapa sasa hivi isingekuwa “Handshake”. Kila mtu anajua hilo na usipo sema ahsante, Mungu atampa mtu The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

shukrani kwa yale ambayo ametendea wengine. Tunaomba Mungu amlinde Rais Uhuru na aendelee na moyo huo wa kuishikilia Kenya hata anapostaafu. Hatakufa na atarudi tu. Kama Katiba ingebadilishwa, tungesema arudi miaka mingine mitano ili Kenya iende mbele. Ahsante sana, Mhe. Spika kwa muda ulionipa.

Member for Rarieda.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I wish to contribute to this Motion and state that this was a constitutional imperative that was well executed to the extent that, in addition to the three reports required by the Constitution, the President gave an additional report on the Business Climate reforms. In addition to that, beyond the one year that is required of the Constitution, the President took us through the eight years of his Presidency. That is beyond the call of duty under the Constitution. The President covered 12 key areas. We all heard them. Of interest to me, first, is the extent he covered the issue of security, including security of the person, security in terms of 2022 elections and, importantly, security in terms of our territorial integrity. The President covered the economy, the performance of the economy and the issue of utilities like water, electricity and efforts that have been put towards the reduction of the cost. Perhaps, in future, it would bear to note that it is also important to talk about the issue of unemployment, which has become quite rampant in our country. The President also talked about infrastructure. We must commend the President and this Government because they have tried in terms of infrastructure, especially on roads, the railway line, the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), and development of tertiary institutions, particularly, the Technical Training Institutes (TTIs).

Even though, for example, in my constituency, the roads and Technical Training Institutes (TTIs) have stalled, we have petitioned. Other than pointing out at development in terms of infrastructure, he should have focused on equitable distribution of infrastructure. The President touched on international relations and I agree with his observation that it does not bear well to close borders because COVID will invade us anyway. It is about the practices we observe internally. More important in his Address was his favourite refrain: Not an inch more, not an inch less. I fully agree with that. Article 10 of the Constitution covers national ethos, unity, inclusivity and equality. So, those who fault the President for talking about what could have been gained in the BBI document are forgetting the Constitution requires him to talk about the national values in Article 10 of the Constitution. When talking about national values, he had to mention issues of power sharing, equality and participation of the people. Therefore, it was a constitutional imperative for the President to talk about these things. Whether you agree or not, is a different matter. On my part, I agree with the fact that he spoke about them and the manner in which he did so. It should be remembered that when the President talks of a lost opportunity, it is not a lost opportunity for him or those who support him, but for all of us in this country. Therefore, when the President says that the good ideas in BBI will be back, that is merely a prophecy. But it is a prophecy that must come to pass in two respects: First, although the Court of Appeal did not pronounce itself on the substantive proposals in the BBI document, it pronounced itself and The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

focused on certain procedural issues. Those procedural issues can be addressed at any time. In any event, we cannot suppose that the Supreme Court before whom the matter now lies, will agree with the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court may as well set aside all the observations and orders of the Court of Appeal. Second, the pronouncement of the Court of Appeal cannot be a death nail to the ideas in the BBI. Ideas cannot die. Those ideas, whether we resurrect them before or after the next election, will come to pass. Lastly, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, as I wind up, I think the Speech was good but a bit too long. Those who write the President’s Speech should make it a little shorter or have both an abridged version and a long one. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Thank you, Member for Rarieda. As per the request list, allow me now to give the Floor to the Member for Saku, Hon. Rasso Ali.

Thank you, very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I want to congratulate the President for his Address to the nation yesterday, in line with Article 132 of the Constitution. At the outset, I want to recognise what I consider positive and effective things that have been achieved during his Presidency. In particular, let me mention the area of electrification and connectivity. As a legislator representing Saku Constituency, I can say that today we have many villages with electricity which hitherto were actually in the dark. The other area concerns international obligations. I really want to congratulate the President for the ascendancy of Kenya to a non-permanent member of the United Nations (UN) Security Council. It was a water mark achievement that will enable us to sit at the international level with the big powers and make important decisions that affect the whole world. There has been positive engagement of Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) to take part in nation building. Look at Kenya Meat Commission (KMC), Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) and Kenya Railways. These are very significant achievements that we have as a country. I think going forward, it is important for this country to understand that the military is about discipline, honour and patriotism. This is what our men and women in uniform and the top brass within that institution have demonstrated. Going forward, I advise His Excellency the President and the one who will come after him - who I strongly believe will be the hustler - to ensure the top leadership of Kenya attends a short course at the National Defence College to clearly understand the issues affecting Kenya. That is why the military is performing so well and is the best institution in this country. There are areas I really anticipated the President to talk about, particularly security matters. I represent a constituency with significant insecurity problems. There are issues in terms of deployment of enough troops on the ground, facilitating officers on patrol to combat bandits, recovery of people’s property and pursuing killers. I think in this regard, we as the people of Marsabit and particularly Saku Constituency, we expected a lot from the President. As far as the Office of the President and Ministry of Interior is concerned, I do not wholly blame the President. I blame that Office and the person occupying it. He should not sleep on the job because Kenya is at peace. Not all parts of this country are safe. Finally, on famine and drought. We expected the President to talk about the Off-take Program among other things. Nothing appears to be happening. On BBI, unity of the Republic, and the Handshake, I think the jury is still out there. With those remarks, I beg to support. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Hon. Wanyonyi Kevin, the representative of the people of Kwanza Constituency, you have the Floor.

Thank you, very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I want to take this opportunity to thank His Excellency the President for all he mentioned. Of course, this was not done 100 percent but it was a review and he did his best. I agree with my brother Amollo that the Speech was too long. I think he may have left out some important issues which Kenyans needed to hear. That notwithstanding, he did well. I want to talk about the BBI. I signed the BBI Petition. I think it is only fair for Kenyans to be given a chance to look at it again and review what went wrong. The BBI was good because it addressed the issue of winner-take-it-all. You know once a person becomes a president, they do what they want. We want to spread out power so that we can have inclusivity in the leadership of this country. Therefore, I quite agree with him that we should do something about it. Please, when matters BBI come to this House, we should be there to support. He did not talk much about maize, which is the mainstay of the economy. It is the staple food in this country. I come from Trans Nzoia. I keenly waited to hear him talk about maize, but there was no mention of it in his Address. There was mention of tea. Of course, we have done very well when it comes to tea and coffee. Maize, which is a staple food in this country, was not mentioned. Farmers are so discouraged out there. Given the climatic changes in this country, farmers are now not very keen with maize farming. Something should be done with regard to the price of maize and its inputs such as fertilizer. Again, His Excellency the President did not mention it. However, the President mentioned something about rural electrification. I think he has done well on that one, even in my area. With rural electrification, we create jobs for the youth. There are no jobs in this country. Therefore, whoever is going to take the leadership of this country should take that as a very important area that we are looking forward to developing, so that we can create more jobs for our youth. Concerning infrastructure, of course, he has done very well. I am talking about railways and highways. I have a problem though: There is a road that was supposed to have been completed in my area that connects us with our neighbour, Uganda. Only 11 kilometres of it has been constructed. Nothing has been done on the road since 2018 up to now. I do not even know who to go to. I am wondering whether it is a priority. I know for sure that some areas are getting modern roads. They are even constructing new roads in some areas. Why can he not ensure that we have a road network all over the country, particularly in my area where road construction has stalled? We said in this House that constituencies that have not tasted tarmac should do so. That is exactly what happened. The road construction has not stopped. I am afraid because I see, read and hear. The President mentioned that some areas are doing very well in terms of road network. Something should be done because roads in my area connect with the neighbouring Uganda, which has a lot of influx into our country. It brings a lot of business in Kenya. That is something that His Excellency the President missed to mention. The last one I will mention under devolution is health. Much as health is a devolved function, it has not done very well. Much as we have the new machines that he mentioned, there are no drugs in county hospitals. Workers are even going on strike. Something should be done. The health function should be returned to the central Government. With those few remarks, I say: “Thank you, Your Excellency. You had a very good Speech.” The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): The Member representing the people of Central Imenti, Hon. Kirima Nguchine.

I have been informed that he is consulting. We have the Member for Othaya Constituency. Hon. Mugambi Gichuki. You have the Floor.

Thank you so much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. I congratulate the President for performing this great duty, a constitutional obligation, with distinction. The State of the Nation Address was delivered with precision. It was well detailed. It reflects nationalism and patriotism. It is true that the President has done a lot for this country. He has been committed to ensuring that this nation moves forward in all aspects, that is, politically and socially. It is true that his legacy in infrastructure will go unchallenged for many years. Today, we are able to connect with almost everywhere in this country, through tarmac roads. Today, virtually every farmer is able to get his or her produce to the market without a problem. That is great credit to His Excellency Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta. He has done a lot in the healthcare sector. On behalf of the people of Othaya where the President has given us a Level 6 Hospital which he mentioned yesterday, I say thank you to him. We know we have made a great milestone in healthcare. The number of hospitals the President has constructed is almost double what we have had since Independence. We know that this is great for Kenyans. Going forward, we are sure that we will see less Kenyans travelling out of this country to look for healthcare services abroad. We know the President has also gone out of his way to even partner with countries with advanced medical personnel, like Cuba, to ensure that Kenyans receive the best at home. We congratulate the President for going out of his way to do what not many people would do. We also have witnessed a lot of growth in agriculture, particularly his intervention in the tea sub-sector. I laud it. It was timely and we know, going forward, that our tea farmers will benefit from those interventions. We cannot forget that the price of milk had at one time plummeted to as low as Kshs17 a litre. Today, at least, farmers are able to get good prices out of their milk production. We want to congratulate the President for dealing with crises. We have had quite a number of crises during his tenure. For those who can remember, we had the Al Shabaab crisis when he took over. He has really tried to deal with it. We know the country has witnessed some peace and safety. We had locust invasion which disrupted agriculture in some parts of this country. Again, he was able to deal with it. We have also had this COVID-19. I congratulate him for the way he steadied the country during this time, especially the economic sector. In the banking sector, we know we have had a stable banking environment during the very difficult moment of COVID-19. I also want to congratulate him on the social safety nets he has rolled out for Kenyans during this difficult moment. Those who are saying that he has not cared for the less fortunate should just reflect on the social safety nets this country has had. I support.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Very well. The Hon. Member for Mwingi West, Hon. Nguna Ngusya, alias CNN.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

I want to congratulate our fourth President for the constitutional imperative he well- executed and fulfilled yesterday. On behalf of the people of Mwingi West, I salute our President for that. The President reminded us that epic things can start with small humble steps. I liked the introductory part of his Speech. He started by reminding us of how he started his life. He had mixed fortunes at first. He failed in his bid for a parliamentary seat and then eventually got nominated as an MP. He later became a Cabinet Minister. I do not want to dwell on that much. I liked the part where he said we need to show empathy to each other when we are in the august House.

The President served as the Official Opposition Leader. So, he was on this side that I am now seated. He also served in Government as…

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Which part? Are you the Official Leader of Minority?

I am in the Opposition, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. Through the National Super Alliance (NASA) Coalition, we are still the officially recognised Opposition and I am proud of it. I know that next year, I will be in the Government. The President began his Speech by looking at some of the issues he intervened on during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Let me take this opportunity to appreciate him…

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Order, Hon. Member. There is an intervention. Is it from the Member for Gatundu North? Okay, carry on.

On issues of the COVID-19 pandemic, we know that the President’s leadership has been dogged with many challenges in health and finance because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The President has tried. I like the way he intervened during the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 when it began. We have seen so many measures that were taken by the Ministry of Health and that is why Kenya has not experienced many deaths in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to our neighbouring countries and other countries. That is a big plus for our President. We appreciate key things in the education sector. He has managed to construct many classrooms and some are ongoing. We have seen desks being supplied and many presidential bursaries helping our young children. We applaud him for the progress in the education sector. With regards to the health sector, it was directed that 50 new level 3 hospitals are built. We thank him. However, we need to ensure that there is equity in the distribution of those health centres. So far, in my constituency, I do not even have a level 3 hospital. He highlighted many other issues like tourism and mitigation of deforestation and drought. He has done a lot in terms of water pans and earth dam infrastructure. Construction of 10,000 kilometres of roads is not a joke. Before I conclude, I would like to remind the President that his legacy in Ukambani is at stake. The Kibwezi-Kitui-Migwani Road is on the verge of stalling. We need the President to intervene so that it can be completed before the end of his term. I liked the issue of electrification although we need to revise some facts. The President stated that 90 per cent of our schools are connected to the national grid. I disagree with that.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Let us have the Member for Kajiado North, Hon. Manje Wathigo.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me the chance to say something on the Motion on the Address by the President on National Values, International Obligations and National Security. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

When I listened to the President yesterday, I got a feeling that this is a man who knows the vision of this country. A good Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is somebody who knows where the entity is and where it is going. So, according to me, he has a clear vision of this country. A good president of any country is one who knows how to administer a country, has public persuasion, deals with the economy properly and knows how to deal with crises like the COVID- 19 pandemic that is a problem world over. The President managed to manoeuvre through the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy is still performing positively. Many other countries were performing negatively, including the United States of America (USA). Kenya managed to, at least, get a 3 per cent growth rate despite the fact that there was COVID-19. One of the fundamentals of trade in every country is the transport industry. The President has managed to construct railways, tunnels, bridges, airports and seaports. We have seaports in Lamu and Mombasa. There is no country that can develop without a good transport system. Kenya is moving towards that direction. The President mentioned that it took about 200 years for America to turn round. In 1956, the then President of USA did something fundamental that brought America to where it is today. He created a Trans-State roads connecting all the states in USA. He had a programme that connected all the states. When you connect counties like the way the President is doing, you ease trade. A country cannot develop without trade. The transport network, which includes roads, forms the basis for movement of goods in a country, goods from one country to another, goods from county to county and the movement of people. If we have good roads in the country, people will work in one area and stay in a different area. That is where we are heading to. If you come to Nairobi today and see how it is coming up, you will see the Nairobi Expressway which will ease trade within the neighbouring counties despite the fact that it is now becoming like any other international capital city. That is the way to go. The President has made sure that Kenyans are properly educated. He allocates about 25 per cent of the Budget to education. When you educate and empower people, they easily move to the next level. He knows how to remove people from poverty. On the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure that he is coming up with, Kenya is one of the countries that is doing well in ICT. If we use ICT, we will grow fast. In Africa, we are the best. We are doing well internationally with M-Pesa. You can transact business wherever you are in the world. You can pay your workers while in another country. That is good for our country. There are still challenges that we need to deal with in the country like corruption. There is no country that develops if it has corrupt officers. By the way, the 20 poorest countries in the world are also the 20 most corrupt. So, unless we fight corruption, we cannot get ourselves out of poverty. Now that we are coming close to elections, we have to make sure that we do not elect corrupt people. That is what America did. If we continue electing corrupt people, we will never reclaim this country. The other thing that we have to deal with is political parties. We have to establish good political parties in this country so that we can transition the country to good leadership. I support the Motion.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Very well. Let us have the Member for Rongai, Hon. Kipruto Moi.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the President’s Address. Article 132 of the Constitution mandates the President to address a joint sitting of Parliament once every year. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

The 2021 State of the Nation Address was on the progress that Kenya has made in the social and economic front. There was emphasis on the programmes that had been put in place to mitigate some of the health issues that arose because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Address also noted the fiscal measures that the Government had put in place, both for the private and the public sectors, to reduce the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the measures that the Government took was Kazi Mtaani, an initiative to create employment and sustainable income for the youth. Other measures taken to support the people and enhance the economy include Central Bank of Kenya’s suspension of CRB listing. Negative credit rating could damage small and medium enterprises. The Government also automated the Land Registry at Ardhi House. Registration of businesses can also be done electronically. The Government also adopted e- payment methods at the Commercial Division of the High Court to make it easier for people to transact business. The Small Claims Court was also encouraged to resolve disputes within 60 days so as to free up capital tied up in disputes. The President also addressed himself to improved roads and rail networks through the allocation of massive resources. Another area that he noted had made marked improvement is electricity connectivity. On agriculture, the President noted the improved value addition to coffee and tea. That, of course, would add to the GDP of this country but it is important to note that other sub-sectors need the same support and the same allocation of resources so that we can become food sufficient. Currently, fertiliser prices in areas like Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia have hit the roof. For example, DAP now sells at Kshs5,500 per bag while six months ago the price was Kshs3,000; CAN is going for Kshs3,300. It seems that when it comes to agriculture, we concentrate so much on tea and coffee. When it comes to maize, we concentrate on consumers. We do not focus on the producer, the farmer. I am a maize farmer and I know there is a lot of disappointment in places like Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia right now. Emphasis has been put on consumers. The Government should refocus and look at farmers, otherwise we will be disappointed and engage in other activities. A nation that cannot feed itself is a weak nation. You cannot depend on other people to feed you. As Government, you cannot patronise foreign farmers as opposed to looking after your own farmers. The problem with this is the issue of corruption. Because we are approaching elections, there is importation of maize, which is to the detriment of our farmers. I would urge the Government to refocus on farmers and give them the necessary allocation to produce food. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Member for Kabondo Kasipul, Hon. Obara Akinyi.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I do appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the President’s Speech. First and foremost, I join my colleagues in appreciating what he has done in the more than eight years he has been in office. What struck me most was his humility and the manner in which he presented himself before us. It is something that we need to emulate as leaders. He was able to admit challenges that he has gone through as the President of this country. I was touched when he mentioned issues of corruption and what he did to try and curb the menace. He did mention bringing in the KDF to manage some of the institutions and the turnaround realised so far. Very few leaders would publicly admit having problems. On his achievement on infrastructure, I do not have to repeat what my colleagues have already said. We have seen it all: roads and railway that we never imagined we would see in our lifetime. This was made possible by him. What he was able to do in healthcare, particularly when The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

we had the crisis of Covid-19, is great. A lot of money was pumped into our counties so that they could improve healthcare. Yes, he did talk about 300 hospital beds in every county, but we know there are many county governments that got the money but did not do anything. At least he can say what he was able to do to save his countrymen and women during the crisis. On education, as recent as last month, he was able to pump in Kshs8 billion for expansion of classrooms in secondary schools to mitigate against the 100 per cent transition policy. There are so many things that he has been able to do but because of the noise in the country, we were not able to appreciate what he has done. His standing here to tell us what he has done is a reminder to us to reflect on what we have done ourselves. What will our constituents say is our scorecard, even as we sit here and say all these things about the President? Our constituents will judge us on what we have been able to do. I want to appreciate him again: Thank you so much Mr. President. Challenges are there. Each one of us faces challenges but I was happy when I heard you talk about the regrets on the BBI. You felt Kenyans would have gained from BBI, which was a result of the ‘handshake’ and conversation with your partner Raila Amolo Odinga. Allocation of more resources to county governments—we lost that. Gender parity—we lost that. Expansion of the Presidency so that people do not fight for resources—we lost that too but at least he gave us hope that all is not lost. Thank you very much. I support.

Member for Kisauni, Hon. Mbogo Menza, you have the Floor.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to add my voice to this important Motion about the President’s Address. First and foremost, on behalf of the great people of Kisauni, I wish to salute His Excellency the President for exercising his constitutional role under Article 132 (d) of the Constitution. There are many things that we can say about achievements of the President. We have to take note of what has been done and give credit where it is due. The President has achieved a lot since he assumed office in 2013. Nevertheless, we understand the challenges he has been through from when he took over. He had the Hague case, issues of corruption and disputes around the outcome of the election but one thing that I will always remember him for is when he shook hands with the former Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga, which brought stability to this country.We cannot shy away from saying that because it was a big achievement and not many people can do so because of ego. The President and Hon. Raila put their egos aside and put the country first. They demonstrated to us how true patriots are supposed to behave – put the country first then your egos later. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, as the Member of Parliament for Kisauni, I have a lot to say about the President. Equity is key. There are many complaints from many parts of the country. It is true that good things are happening in the country but they are not trickling down to each and every village of this country. Nevertheless, we have to appreciate what he has done for the country. At the end of the day, we have to look at the country as a whole. In terms of infrastructure, and specifically roads, we can say a lot. The President has raised the bar in terms of development. Whoever will come in as the Fifth President will have a lot to outdo the good record that has been achieved by his Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta. We can talk about the railway from Mombasa to Nairobi and from Nairobi to Naivasha, which has really opened up this country. What has been done in 123 years as per the detailed Report that was shared by the President yesterday; out of 11,000 kilometres of tarmac roads, he The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

has been able to construct more than 10,000 kilometres in 10 years. That is a record. Whoever will come in as the next president may have to work extra hard to break it. My constituency is a beneficiary of road development projects. We had a road that had stalled for 23 years – the road that connects Kisauni with Mwakirunge and Kaloleni. It is called

. The President allocated some funds to that road. We started tarmacking it and is now almost at the tail-end. There is another road that will start early next year. It is a 34-kilometre road. We allocated Kshs1.6 billion to that road and we are tarmacking it from Bamburi to Mwakirunge to Kaloleni. This is an area that has never seen tarmac for the last 123 years. The people of Kisauni will always be appreciative of what the President has done for them. The number of households that have been connected to the national grid is something to be proud of. I am a beneficiary of that program. In my constituency, we have villages called Chidagaya, Mazombani, Mwakirunge and Kashani, amongst many others. They have all been connected to the national grid. My people have seen electricity for the first time in 123 years. The downsize of all these is the cost of fuel. There has been an outcry. Yesterday, the President said we have invested heavily on the Kipevu Oil Terminal (KOT) Jetty, which can accommodate four vessels at a time. That is, however, not the solution to the demurrage issue. That problem can only be sorted out if we increase our storage capacity and evacuation---

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Member for Baringo County, Hon. Jesire Cheruiyot.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. I am delighted that I have a chance to support the Speech that the President gave yesterday. He managed to deliver all what that people are talking about despite the challenges that we have had as a country following the Covid-19 pandemic. We have also been politicking from the time we were elected up to date. As a human being, he really tried what was within his means. As Kenyans, we are proud of him. I am also proud of him as my President. We pray that whoever comes after him will pick up from there and even do more. By the help of God, the President worked hard to hold this country together by accepting to have a “handshake”, which many people were not happy about. People read a sinister motive but eventually, it became beneficial to this country. It is something that people will refer to in the future. It should serve as a precedence so that future presidents do not become selfish and think that it is not easy to get another person to work with despite the fact that you are the president. The BBI would have solved our problems if we had passed it. Our Constitution provides for a take-all president. It becomes challenging because the other part will be having the other half of the country. It is important that we re-look into this matter and abandon our selfish way of thinking. The health sector has really improved. The pandemic contributed a lot to the increased ICU bed capacity in hospitals. We have seen a lot of change in the health sector. The number of health facilities has increased and we are happy. We pray that the county governments continue to maintain the standards of the facilities that have been established by the national Government. The pandemic affected the economy and many other things. We also lost many people. Many people are crying left, right and centre because of what happened. Despite all those challenges, the president did his part. He managed to control the effects of the pandemic within his means. It became a serious economic challenge but we were able to go through it and we are happy. We thank God, so far so good. Kenyans have been vaccinated. We are increasing the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

number of the people who have been vaccinated daily. We are encouraging Kenyans to present themselves to health facilities to be vaccinated. There is the cash transfer programme for the elderly. It is a plus to us. It is a unique exercise that is improving humanity. It is helping the elderly to meet their day-to-day basic needs. This is not something that is easy to execute in many countries. Apart from that, there are so many good things we can associate the President with even though we cannot lack a few things that have not been done well. The people who will take over the leadership of this country after him will finish what is left. Compensation is going to happen soon to people who were affected by human-wildlife conflict in Baringo County. We are very happy because it is one of its kind. I, therefore, congratulate the President. May God help as you proceed. Do not tire, finish it and hand it over well to the right person. God bless His Excellency Uhuru.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Member for Tiaty, Hon. Kamket William.

It is the mighty Tiaty.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): We know it as Tiaty Constituency.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity to comment on the Presidential Address. What mostly concerns me as a pastoralist is livestock. At the outset, I want to thank the President for mentioning something, even though a little bit in passing, on the matter of the livestock offtake programme. I want to encourage those who sit around the President to realise that those of us who depend on livestock are also very serious stakeholders to the economy of this country. I would like to ask them to advise the President to remember that livestock is a key factor in the lives of those who look after cows. I am a bit disappointed with the way the livestock industry has been treated over the years. I hear lofty amounts of money being allocated to other departments like the crop industry but the livestock sector is not well considered. However, I am impressed that the President took it upon himself to take away the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) from the corrupt elements and gave it to the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), who have since revived it. I request that the success being observed at the KMC should be cascaded down to the right people in the villages that we come from. Livestock is devolved. I want to urge the KMC that with that success in Athi River, they should move down to where we come from. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, on the matter of security, I want to take this opportunity to appreciate the measures taken by His Excellency the President in securing our country both internationally and within. However, I want to take this moment to implore on the President not to listen and bow to political pressure to allow the re-arming of communities. I am aware that some of my colleagues, because of some little pressure here and there, have gone to the Office of the President to ask the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and Coordination of National Government to re-arm communities to fight each other using Government guns in the hands of National Police Reservists. Since guns were removed from raia, we have enjoyed relative peace. There are skirmishes here and there but re-arming communities is tantamount to an admission of failure by the security forces, and it is not the right thing to do. In my opinion, the best thing would be to develop those regions. For instance, Tiaty Constituency constitutes half of Baringo County. All we need in that region is development. Let us fully implement the Equalisation Fund. Now that we The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

have passed the Regulations, we just need to implement and develop those areas and remove the mentality of poverty. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, on the matter of political stability, I was one very disappointed Kenyan when the court made its pronouncement on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI). However, I am comforted that the President gave the assurance yesterday that the BBI is coming back and we will have it implemented in one way or the other by either the outgoing Government or the incoming one, in which I shall proudly be serving.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Member for Tiaty, you could have a lot to say but your time is up.

No, you are not more special than other Members. Let us have other Members speak also. You have done well. Let us have the Member for Kiharu.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. The State of the Nation Address by the President yesterday was both underwhelming and disappointing because we came here with great expectations. We thought he would say something around agriculture and farmers. As you know, agriculture forms the backbone of our economy but issues of farmers were relegated to “ et cetera” and “any other business.” First, the President was not factual to insinuate to this House that tea farmers are having their best year in a decade or so. In fact, tea farmers are crying out there because the kind of price they faced this year is disappointing. It is actually lower than in many of years back. Additionally, I expected the President to begin his Speech from where he stopped in his previous Speech, where he talked about creating the Cherry Fund for Coffee farmers. Unfortunately, the Cherry Fund is just on paper and in the files of Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya. In so far as farmers are concerned, there is no such money that has reached their pockets to be able to spur their farming and especially in terms of coffee farming. In addition, there was a contradiction of facts because in some ways, you could feel like you were in some Netflix video in this House. This is because the reality that was portrayed by the State of the Nation Address yesterday is very different from the reality out there. The President talked about fertilizer prices having gone down but the reality is different. Anybody is free to do a spot check. Fertilizer prices are actually highest in history. Therefore, it was not right for the President to give us wrong figures when majority of the people we represent here, especially farmers, are waiting for real solutions from this House. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Speech was also disappointing because I heard the President say that he took over the economy when it was around Kshs4.7 trillion and that it currently stands at around Kshs11 trillion. Using the same Government data that is given in this House every year; in 2013, our economy grew by just about 5.8 per cent. In 2014, it grew by about 5.3 per cent. On average, so that I do not tire this House with many figures, the economy of Kenya has grown compounded by an average of 5 per cent every year from 2013. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, these are not miracles or rocket science. Any Kenyan can take their calculator and compound 4.7 by 5 per cent in the last eight years and what you will The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

get as an aggregate is around Kshs6.8 trillion. Therefore, for the Kenyan economy to have grown to Kshs11 trillion, it ought to have grown by 10 to 11 per cent per annum compounded for the eight years. Therefore, Kenya ought to have been placed as the highest growing economy in the world. Disappointingly, if you compound the average, as reported by this Government, it comes to a paltry 6.8. Either the President's Speech or the data provided by this Government is wrong. I can see that my time is almost up. Lastly, I want to speak to the issue of debt. The President talked about kilometres of road and connection of households to electricity. We have borrowed a net of over Kshs10 trillion. A proportion of that can do so much. If you just double that and tarmac 20,000 kilometres, you will spend Kshs1.2 trillion. If you connect 10 million households with electricity, you will just need Kshs350 billion. If you connect households to piped water and spend about Kshs50,000 per household, you will spend Kshs500 billion only. If you construct a Level Six Hospital in every constituency, you will only use Kshs290 billion. Cumulatively, that is around Kshs3.32 billion. If you throw in a trillion shillings for other people to steal, you will still be left with over half the money that we have borrowed. However, that money cannot be traced. We do not know where that money is. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker…

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): The representative of the people of Matayos Constituency is next.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. At the outset, let me also say that I am pleased with the Address by the Head of State yesterday. We appreciate that the President, in his humility and wisdom, decided to have a handshake with the Rt. Hon. Raila Amollo Odinga, which created some peace and some order in the country. This was good ground and environment for the economy to grow and for the Government to perform its duties. It is for this reason that I say the President was guided by God and by wisdom. We should also go through the books of history and remember that had this been done before, this country would be much ahead. We do remember that the Rt. Hon. Raila Amollo Odinga did that kind of thing with the late President Moi at one time. He later on did it after the 2007/2008 elections, with retired President Mwai Kibaki. This is the kind of thing that we want leaders to emulate even after our elections, so that we can have a country that is moving together. We have to accept the result as they are declared. In the handshake and later on the BBI, there is the issue of inclusivity. It is quite important. I was happy with the President’s address when he mentioned that we need to revisit the contents of the BBI. I am sure that this will be done when we have a new President coming in and there is some organisation in Government.

On the issue of infrastructure, it is true that a lot has been done during President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta’s turn. We really appreciate. However, we also want to say that we need this to be cascaded to other parts of the country. When we walk around Nairobi, we are happy. Hon. Mwai Kibaki did the Thika Super Highway, we are seeing the Express Way here and quite a number of good roads around the counties that surround Nairobi, particularly in central Kenya. You move to the rest of the country like Busia, which is the entry and exit to our neighbours in Eastern, Central and even West and North Africa, there are no roads. It does not help to have good roads only around the city and outside we do not have roads connecting to other nations. It was stated here by Hon. Manje that, for industrialisation to take place and for manufacturing to get itself embedded and entrenched, we need to have our transport system working. We will not only have that transport or infrastructure working only around a certain region of the city and so on. We should open up the roads in Busia. We have three border points, namely; Busia Border Post, The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Malava Border Post and the one that Mzee Kibaki went to launch at Mulwanda. All of them have no roads. You get to Busia you wonder if Kenya the National Highways Authority (KeNHA) is doing anything in this country. There is very little that has been done. We needed to open up those bypasses, like from Mundika to Mayenje to the border post. The other one is Mundika-Kemodo- Buteba Road on the border with Uganda. We should also expand the one in Malaba. I know the roads and the borders of Busia carry a lot more trade than any other in this country and they should not be relegated.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Member for Gatundu North Constituency, Hon. Kibeh Wanjiku.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for granting me this opportunity to also go on record and congratulate His Excellency the President for a very good State of the Nation Address. If you allow me, from the village where I come from, we have a famous saying which states, “A human being will always count what has not been given but rarely what has been given.” Listening to my friend and agemate, Hon. Ndindi Nyoro, I feel like he has chosen not to count what has been given but what has not been given. Just to highlight a few things without being repetitive, I am very happy that I woke up on that election day and put my vote where it mattered. The President has proved that he is a man who loves this country. He does not only love this country but Africa too. He is a Pan- Africanist and he has put this country in the global map. If we look at the kind of developments that are going on, from where we are coming, it is important to note the transformation that has been going on. We should look at where we are coming from, where we are and where we are going. I think the President took over from the Third President, Hon. Mwai Kibaki. We know how the country was at that time. I think he came in with a vision to build on what had been done and that is the reason we have been able to see a lot of developments going on. However much you may hate or love someone, it is good to give credit where it is due. I want to highlight the issue of agriculture because I come from an agricultural constituency. I think I have been very involved in the kind of transformation that is happening in the tea and coffee sectors. I have always tried to participate where I can. I have even tried to bring farmers to benefit from the Coffee Cherry Fund. I think it is very exciting and the farmers are very excited. So, it is not fair for someone to come here and say that the President did not know what he was talking about. We are witnesses. We have witnessed what has been happening. There are a lot of things that are happening. It is transformation. From my end, I will give the President an A- for the job that he has done. This is not to say that we cannot do more. I give him that A- bearing in mind that there have been major challenges. It is also good to note that he is the first President to implement the new Constitution. This has had challenges. We have had the issues of Covid-19, which has been a challenging in this country but our economy is still strong and Kenya is now in the global scene.

With those few remarks, I do support and congratulate the President. Where I come from, we say, “Give us the direction.” We want to follow the direction that he will give us and ensure that his legacy goes into the right hands.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Let me have the Member for Runyenjes, Hon. Njiru Muchangi.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me an opportunity to add my voice to the debate on the State of the Nation Address by the President. I need to state that I was seated here listening carefully to the Address that was being The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

given yesterday. Of concern to me is the emphasis that the President has put on how his government has expanded the road network and other infrastructure like the ports and the expressway on Mombasa Road. I need to state that this effect has not been felt in all parts of this country, specifically Embu County and Runyenjes Constituency. There are roads which stalled since 2015 and have not been completed to date. They include the Kieni-Kathanjuri-Karurumo Road. So, when the ports, the expressway, the Mau government Road, the dual carriageways and the Kenol-Marua Road are mentioned, the people of Embu do not feel like they have been attended to or sorted by this Government. Actually, there is the Kararitiri-Rukuriri-Kathageria-Kigumo Road, which is next to the forest and a trench dug by the Mau Kanemaru fighters. That road has been left out. It has not been tarmacked. So, we would like to see it done. Second, is the issue of tea earnings. I am a tea farmer. A half of my constituents are tea and coffee farmers. I can confirm to this House that the effect of the sales mentioned by the President in his Address have not been felt by tea farmers in my constituency. We would like him to ensure that the current good prices reach tea farmers so that they can benefit. We need to hear good stories from them. A couple of years ago, tea farmers we were being paid Kshs58 per kilogramme. This year’s tea bonus paid only Kshs30 per kilogram. I need to confirm that my tea factory in Rukuriri is the best in the country yet we got paid Kshs30 per kilogramme. A couple of years ago, the same factory paid Kshs58 per kilogramme. We would like to feel the impact of the progress that the President talked about, so that we all celebrate the gains that this Government has realised.

With those few remarks, I support.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Let us have the Member for Ndaragwa, Hon. Jeremiah Kioni.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. For eight years, the President, under the Jubilee Government, has managed to do what others did not managed to do in over 123 years. It was a great opportunity for us to listen to him. Some of us who listened to others were getting a little concerned. This is because all we were hearing is that nothing has been done. Without a doubt, the President did not cover everything, perhaps, due to lack of enough time. For the record, one of the astonishing things I want to mention is that in my constituency, the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, through the National Irrigation Agency, have done water pans. Before the commencement of this exercise by the Jubilee Government, under the direct management of His Excellency the President Uhuru, those water pans were done at a cost of Kshs180 million each. In my constituency, two were done recently at a cost of Kshs18 million each. Just note the difference. They were being done at Kshs180 million and two years ago the same excavation was done at Kshs18 million. Look at the theft of public resources which was going on. So, when you heard the President say that we were losing about Kshs2 billion daily, this was not through other means but through people who are entrusted with public offices. They steal by corrupting the laid down procedures and by not doing what is expected of them. He also gave an example of the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC). Before the coming on board of Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), we were collecting only Kshs8,000 per day but with KDF on board and in-charge, we are collecting Kshs1 million a day. What more changes than having honest people on board would somebody want the President to do? This country can achieve a lot but honesty from those charged with the responsibility of managing our affairs is lacking. I want to include us in this because when we are elected into The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

office, it is always fair we devote our time to improving the lives of the people who voted for us. When we spend all our time doing campaigns before the time is right, we waste people’s time. We are also dishonest in our ways. You cannot spend all the time campaign when you are supposed to be offering leadership. That is, essence, wasting people’s time. Again, we have had a very difficult scenario in this country, just like everywhere else in the world, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the management of the President, we were able to come out the best. We did better than many other nations and still some companies seized the opportunity to become exporters of much needed products to the rest of the world. This is because they saw an opportunity to do something differently than before. Talking about roads, even in my constituency, we have roads which are under construction. They will certainly not be complete by the time we go for elections next year. I hope more roads will be constructed. We are constructing 106 kilometres of road and we would want another 100 kilometres to be constructed under the new government but the question is: “Who can we entrust with the next government?” It is important we check around to see who has safe hands. If you ask me, I can tell you what I said before - That, I believe the handshake is the direction given to us. It is through the handshake that we have been able to achieve all that was said yesterday. We can achieve more if we give ourselves the opportunity in 2022. I thank you.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Let us have the Member for Keiyo South, Hon. Rono Kipkogei.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to also weigh in on the State of the Nation Address by our President. It is true that the Jubilee Government has achieved some growth of our economy. This can be attributed to the first term between 2013 and 2017. Needless to say, certainly a few developments have taken place from 2017 to date. We were told that 11,000 kilometres of roads were tarmacked. It is good to know where exactly these tarmacked roads are. I do not challenge they could be existing but there is a lot of inequality in tarmacking of roads in this country. In my constituency, a road meant to go all the way to Tot and open up that area to avoid the cattle rustling issues we hear of day in, day out, has not been constructed to date. That road would have been constructed by now but, because we were on the wrong side of history, as you all know, and we are not part of the handshake, we are suffering as a county. For example, the Kimwarer and Arror dams were politicised for nothing yet that is how the Government has always done its projects. That is how they sign their documents. That is the same method that was used to get money for Itare Dam from abroad. However, because of politics and our not being part of the handshake, projects like Arror and Kimwarer have been demonized.

Going back to roads, there was a road that was supposed to be constructed from Kipsaos to Kapkayo and to a place called Emsea but was cut short because we are…

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Order, Hon. Member. Just a minute. There is an intervention by the Member for Tiaty. What is out of order?

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, this is a House of records. I do not like it when Members deliberately…

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): So, what is out of order? Can you state what is out of order?

Is the Member in order to mislead the House by saying that the road from Loruk to Tot to Marich Pass is not being done yet tenders have been The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

awarded? I am aware that construction has already begun. He is misleading the House that the only reason the road is not being done is because he is in Tangatanga.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): No. You are out of order. You had your time and you spoke to the President’s Address. It is important for Members to understand. Member for Tiaty, you have already spoke. If you have paperwork proving that construction of the road has started, then you know when it was started. You are even on record saying that it has not started. The Member is right to debate. Maybe you would have proved it to him. I do not know how you know and he does not. That is for another day. Hon. Member, please carry on.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I think my colleague was in deep slumber because I mentioned the Emsea Road that goes from Keiyo Constituency to Tot in Marakwet. He is talking about Kacheliba and Baringo, which is totally out of order. He is fleeing because he knows he is misleading the House. I hope you will refund me the minute that the Hon. Member wasted. We were told that the economy has expanded. We want to be told how many jobs were created. Our youths are currently unemployed. There is virtually no movement that has taken place to employ the unemployed. We have quite a number of unemployed youths. The President should tell us why the number of employed youths has not equally doubled if the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has doubled, We were told about the progress made in the healthcare care sector, and that by 2022 we will achieve Universal Healthcare (UHC). However, the President did not mention the fact that there are hardly any drugs in our county hospitals and dispensaries. This is a result of the Covid- 19 billionaires – the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) thieves. He did not talk about how we should address issue of the KEMSA thieves, who are the cause of our county hospitals lacking drugs. We were told that we have achieved political stability as a result of the handshake, but he forgot to bring everyone on board the same handshake. He left out other areas in the handshake. This instability was man-made.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Member for Keiyo South, you will have your time. Let us have an intervention from the Member for Kiambu.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, is it in order for the Hon. Member to mislead this House by saying that the Government has no intention of creating employment for the youth when we know very well that the Government has engaged Kenyan youths in …

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): No, Member for Kiambu. You will have your time to debate on this Motion. If you have the facts, you know what the Government has or has not done. Hon. Members, as I did in the last sitting, allow me to guide the House. Please, do not just rise on a point of order that you are not even able to substantiate. Wait for your time to debate. Each time you rise on a point of order, you must mention the Standing Order you are rising on so that we do not take advantage of point of orders. The Member for Keiyo South is right. This is a House of debate. Hon. Jude Njomo, when you get your time, you will say whether that has been done or not. Proceed, Member for Keiyo.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, kindly grant me more time. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

The issue of political instability was manmade. This is an individual who could not accept the results of an election. He was beaten in an election. He targeted the establishment of a handshake so that he could get into Government through the backdoor, which is wrong. We should never allow or encourage that kind of thing. We should respect the results of an election. The President regretted that the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) died. He should let it die a natural death. A good number of those issues can be achieved through administration and through Parliament. We can increase the allocation to counties from 15 per cent to 30 or 35 per cent.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Very well. Let us now have the Member for Nyeri Town, Hon. Wambugu Ngunjiri.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to comment on the President’s State of the Nation Address, and to especially support many of the things that he raised. First and foremost, I would like to point out that you have an option in any given circumstance. You can give someone a glass of juice that is three-quarters full and they can decide to focus on the quarter that is not there and complain about that. For those of us in this House, we are all political operatives. We know that politics is not a perfect business. You can never get 100 per cent. In fact, if you get 65 or 70 per cent, you are doing extremely well. Yesterday, we listened to the President as he articulated what his government has done. There is one thing that I feel is very understated. The last time I got a 411 update on the vaccination exercise in the country, I was informed that more than six million Kenyans had been vaccinated. I do not know whether we understand the capacity and cost of vaccinating six million Kenyans at no cost. The Government has been able to do this. People across the country have been able to access Covid-19 vaccines. This is something we are supposed to celebrate and acknowledge as an achievement of this Government. If you look at the President’s State of the Nation Address, you see how he turned a crisis into an opportunity. I come from Nyeri Town Constituency. When the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak, we had 4,000 young men and women working under the Kazi Mtaani Programme just in that one constituency. This played a major role in keeping the community going and reducing opportunities for misbehaviour among the youth. They were earning some money and were busy. This is something we need to appreciate. It is also important for us to appreciate that we have had an extremely volatile political environment in this country over the last three years. Some sections of the Executive decided that they were not going to work but instead they were going to spend the rest of the period campaigning. They left all the work to the President and part of the Government. Despite this and the fact that we looked like we were running into a campaign at any given time, the President was able to steady the country and keep it going. We have had people shouting politically every weekend but that has not at all affected the social structure of this country. It has not at all affected the economic structure of this country. It has not at all affected how people relate with one another. That is great achievement. I have listened to some of my colleagues complaining about being left out of the handshake. The handshake of 2018 was between protagonists of a political competition. The political competition that happened in 2017 was between two people. I do not understand why some people feel like they were left out. They were not part of that conflict, unless they want to be part of it. In addition, the humility that is required to do what the partners of the handshake did tells us of their commitment to this country’s wellbeing. They were able to come down from their high horses and abandon them. Each of them felt a certain sense of entitlement for their position but The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

they came down. For the sake of this nation, they reached out to each other. The lesson that we should learn from the handshake is that for us to move our country forward, we must be willing to step down from hard-held positions and listen to the other person. That is one of the achievements of the President. There was a major articulation, in point form, of the economic infrastructure. Kenya looks like a construction site. If you drive around town, you will look like you are in the middle of a construction site. That is something we cannot underscore. So, mine is to congratulate the President for what he has done. I know he still has another couple of months to finish his second term in office. I know he will finish strong. As he finishes strong, we will, as a country, be able to decide who takes over from him to continue the good work that he has done. Thank you very, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Hon. King’ola Makau, Member for Mavoko.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this moment to comment on the President’s Speech. I thank the President. Yesterday, he divided his Speech into three main themes: economic, social and political. The President spoke of his achievements. As I stand here, out of those gains, I am one of the happiest people. After the Nairobi Expressway from Mlolongo is completed, he said it will take about 22 minutes to be in this town. That is a tick. Secondly, the President was categorical about the road network, and water and electricity connectivity. He highlighted all the areas in which Kenyans have benefitted. In fact, if you listened to the President, he spoke of two tabs. The first was Government, the second was him. If you listened to the President, he has, on his own, achieved more than what the Government did since 2013. Therefore, economically, I think the President was to the point and rightfully so. On the social limb, the President spoke of the Kazi Mtaani Initiative. I want to say here that I have witnessed it. Mavoko Constituency alone had 4,500 young men and women benefitting from the Kazi Mtaani Initiative. That not only mitigated the Covid-19 hard time but also made our youth busy. Thirdly, when the President spoke about politics, I listened to him very carefully. By him offering to go for a handshake, it was a way of bringing sanity in this country. I hear people say that he went to see Raila for his own sake or benefit. I categorically disagree with that. From March 2018, some sanity returned to this country and business resumed. He even highlighted how much we lost in terms of man-hours and lost opportunities. After the handshake, every person in the globe knows that Kenya took off. I commend him for that. The handshake was not only between him and Raila Amollo Odinga. My own party leader of the Wiper Democratic Movement (WDM- K), Kalonzo Musyoka, joined in. I am one of the beneficiaries of that handshake. As I stand here, I am the substantive Chair of the Departmental Committee on Sports, Culture and Tourism. It is because of that understanding. It brought harmony and understanding among all parties in this House. There are people who were even appointed Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries out of the handshake. The President spoke about the BBI. I still support the BBI because we have lost opportunities, particularly Mavoko Constituency which has more than 500,000 people. We were going to benefit from the BBI in that we were going to get two constituencies in one and more than 10 wards from that BBI arrangement. I am still of the opinion that we should revive the BBI because it is going to bring more money to devolution and more administrative units. I invite my The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

colleagues to look at the BBI as a development tool that will anchor all developments. For example, the increase of the share of national revenue for the counties from 15 per cent to 35 per cent would be anchored in law. This would ensure that successive governments do not operating on the whims of the president. We will avoid the winner-takes- all mentality. With those few remarks, I support the President’s Speech. I want to tell Kenyans to support President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta for the remaining time so that we reap a few more benefits.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Very well. Member for Ruiru Constituency, the Hon. King’ara Ng’ang’a.

… (Off-record)

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): Who is on a point of order? I cannot see any intervention. Hon. Makau has a right. I have not heard him trying to speak that way, including him saying that his party leader, Hon. Kalonzo Musyoka, should be the President. Hon. Members, this is a House of debate. Let me have the Member for Ruiru Constituency.

Asante sana, Mhe. Naibu Spika wa Muda, kwa kunipatia mwanya huu kuchangia kuhusu hali ya taifa iliyoletwa mbele yetu na kiongozi wa nchi hii jana. Kwanza kabisa ni kumshukuru kwa sababu ya kuheshimu Bunge na sheria. Aliona ni vizuri atumie utaratibu uliotengwa kikatiba kutekeleza kazi aliyopewa na wananchi. Kama vile wenzangu wamechangia hapo mwanzo, ni vizuri kuheshimu kwa kuongea yale mema na mazuri yametendwa na viongozi, hasa Uhuru Kenyatta. La muhimu sana, ndio tuweze kutekeleza maendeleo ya aina yoyote, ni vizuri tuwe na barabara za kupitia. Mnajua amechukua changamoto kubwa kuona kuwa barabara zimetengenezwa kwa wingi. Vilevile, kazi haiishi kwa siku ya kwanza. Barabara nyingi zimetengenezwa ingawa kuna zile mbili au tatu ambazo zimebaki. Hiyo si kusema kuwa kazi haijafanywa. Ukiangalia kwangu Ruiru, barabara zimejengwa lakini kwa sababu ya wingi wa watu, bado kuna barabara kama ile ya Rainbow kwenda Gikumari na kushikanisha Juja na Ruiru; ambayo bado tunatarajia itengenezwe katika utaratibu ule. Vilevile, mwanadamu hawezi kuishi bila maji. Serikali imechukua jukumu la kuhakikisha wananchi wengi hapa Kenya wamepata maji. Mimi siwezi lalamika. Hata kama maji hayajafika kwangu kote, najua kuna bwawa Ruiru litakalosaidia watu wa Ruiru, Juja, Thika na mji wa Nairobi. Ni vizuri kutambua hayo. Kwa afya, nimesimama hapa mbeleni na kuchangia hayo mambo. Tulikuwa na changamoto kubwa sana pale Ruiru kuhusu vitanda hospitalini. Tuko watu 600,000 na vitanda vilikuwa 24. Saa hii nimesimama mbele ya Bunge kusema ya kwamba kutokana na maendeleo mema ya Uhuru Kenyatta, tuko na vitanda 150. Hilo ni jambo nzuri. Na hatuwezi kusita kusema ukweli juu ya yale yametendeka. Ni vizuri vilevile kuhakikisha kuna amani ndio watu wafanye kazi pembe zote za Kenya. Kiongozi wa nchi amejaribu pale angeweza kuleta uwiano. Ndio sababu tuko hapa na unaweza fanya biashara katika pembe yoyote ya Kenya na maendeleo yanoge. Hata wakati kiongozi wa nchi na viongozi wengine walikuwa wanajaribu kuleta maendeleo Kenya yetu, tulikumbwa na hili janga la Korona. Mwendo wa maendeleo ulipungua. Lakini Serikali, ikiongozwa na Uhuru Kenyatta, ilipambana kuhakikisha angalau watu hawataangamia wote. Alisukuma na tukapata chanjo za bure. Hilo ni jambo hatuwezi kusahau kwa sababu afya inafaa kuangaziwa vizuri. Uhaba wa kazi ni changamoto. Serikali imejaribu kuhakikisha vijana wamepata kazi. Lakini lile liliniguza ni taasisi ya kiufundi, ukipenda TTI, ambayo imewekwa karibu maeneo yote. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Watoto wetu sasa hawataenda chuo kikuu. Wataenda hizo taasisi za kiufundi na kupata mwelekeo wa kujiajiri wao wenyewe. Hilo ni jambo ambalo litaendeleza maisha ya vijana nchini. Asante. Mimi naunga mkono. Ningeomba tumpatie Uhuru nafasi amalize ile kazi tulimpatia ndio Kenya itambulike katika Afrika.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): The Member for Gatanga, Hon. Ngugi Nduati.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me a chance to also make my contribution. I listened very keenly to what the President said yesterday. I want to confirm that a lot has been achieved by the President during his term. I come from Gatanga, where our “cash crop” is music. We are known for famous musicians like DK, Peter Kaggia, John De Matthew, Timona Mburu and many others. Through the leadership of the President, we have been able to get a new studio worth Ksh25 million. The President realised we were losing our “cash crop” to Nyandarua people, where Hon. Kioni comes from. Through that investment, I want to assure you that we will continue bringing in the best numbers from Central Kenya. I want to invite you one of these days. We can even give you tutorials on how to sing and you will also drink our water. When you drink water from Gatanga, you become a musician. In terms of infrastructure, I want to confirm that the President has done a lot. It is not in Nairobi alone, where we see the Expressway. In Gatanga, I can confirm you can drive across four wards without touching murram roads. Tarmacking of so many other roads is ongoing. One is from Makuyu to Kaguku to Gateguru. From Makuyu, the road joins Garissa Road, which was done by the President at a cost of about Ksh2.6 billion. It is going to connect the dry areas in Maragua, the lower side of Gatanga and Garissa Road. It is a very good road. To decongest Thika Town and facilitate movement, because most businessmen in Thika come from my constituency, the Government has constructed a new bypass from Blue Post to Del Monte up to Garissa Road. It is a fantastic new road, which is still in Gatanga. Again, through the Jubilee Government, the Kiunyu-Jasho-Mukurwe Road in Gitiri has been constructed at a cost of about Ksh1 billion. People are talking about the Mau Mau Road. It was even done earlier. It comes from Kimandi to Karangi to Gatakaini. It has also been constructed by this Government at a cost of more than Ksh1 billion. There is another ongoing road construction from Kiruara to Giatutu to Kegio. It will also cost about Ksh1 billion. It is about 50 per cent complete. The game changer, which we pleaded for to the President and he agreed to, is to connect Nyandarua with Murang’a. That connection is going to be provided through Gatanga. He is constructing a new road from Gatakaini to Njabini and connecting Kinyona. It will cost about Ksh3 billion. This road is going to improve trade between Nyandarua and Gatanga. In Gatanga, we grow avocados, arrow roots, sweet potatoes, tea and coffee. We will be able to export them to Naivasha, Njabini and areas in Rift Valley. Through this connection, potatoes, peas and carrots have become cheap. It is also going to facilitate trade between Machakos and Kitui. In terms of power, we have done very well. There is improved power connectivity. We have lit up our towns with street lights. On water supply, we are doing very well. All the water you use in Nairobi comes from Gatanga. Through the support of the President, we recently got a Ksh300 million water project to support the people of Gatanga. We also have a new scheme called Ruwegetha Shomo Water Project, which is going to support 30,000 people.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): You must plan your time. You just found me in a good mood. I will give you one minute. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Thank you. In terms of irrigation, we have four ongoing irrigation schemes. We have constructed more than 1,500 water pans. The ones which are complete have been stocked with fish. So, when you are in the lower side of Gatanga, where the Akamba in Machakos are, you will be able to eat fish, which they have not seen in many days. We also have an equipped TVET. Through the NG-CDF we have constructed many new schools. Mine is just to congratulate the President. Thank you very much.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): You had to say some of the beneficiaries are Kamba. That was not the basis of the additional minute. It was my discretion. Let us now have the Member for Kiambu, Hon. Njomo Kangethe.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. The President came to this House yesterday to accomplish a constitutional requirement of briefing the country about development plans and what he has achieved. Some people who were in this House yesterday went home sad and annoyed because they have been preaching a gospel that the Jubilee Government has not attained any development. However, he came out clearly on the developments that his Government has attained. The Government has invested heavily in healthcare and our country is now ranked third in provision of health services in Africa after South Africa and Tunisia. This is not a mean achievement. I am sure we are going to be the top service provider. I recently went to the newly opened Kenyatta University Hospital and was amazed by the kind of services offered there. It is better than most private hospitals that are in this country. He told us about decongestion of Kenyatta National Hospital through provision of other hospitals that have been built around Nairobi. They are not two or three but many. The KNH is not the only one that has been decongested but also Kiambu District Hospital which was receiving many patients from Nairobi. Today, patients from Kiambu County are able to get healthcare services from Nairobi County and thus decongesting Kiambu Hospital. The NHIF is another mark of development of healthcare in Kenya. It is now helping our patients to get medical services and are able to afford it. The President enumerated how we have increased our training facilities for healthcare; Kenya Medical Training Colleges from 28 to 72 institutions within the short time he has been in power. Our President and the Jubilee Government have worked hard including the Linda Mama Program that has been introduced which is helping mothers to deliver. The Government has done very well in terms of education. A quarter of the Budget has been dedicated to education and improvement of education facilities. This has increased the transition rate of our students from Class Eight to Form One to 100 per cent; a dream that we as a country have been having that every child should have a secondary school education. We have been able to attain a book ratio of one book to one child in our schools. Before his coming to power, parents were buying books for their children. Today, apart from the Government paying tuition for students, it is also providing books and other learning materials in a very successful way. Ninety per cent of our schools have been connected to the national grid. Students are able to do their experiments and even study late in the evenings. He did not even mention the kind of work that has been done by the NG-CDF in every constituency which is also provided by the Jubilee Government. It has improved the academic institutions that we have in every constituency. I congratulate His Excellency the President and his Jubilee Government for work well done. Thank you. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

(Hon. (Ms.) Jessica Mbalu): The Member for Masinga Constituency, Hon. Mwalyo Mbithi.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity you have given me to say a few words about the Presidential Speech. The President coming to this House yesterday was a great day for Kenyans to be educated on what the Government is doing in a big way. First of all, I was delighted to sit in this House for those few hours he was here; and was able to learn more about what the Government is doing. I know a few of them that I have been following, and I have been involved in some. I want to highlight a few issues that I have known the Government has done in this country. I have been watching the Blue Economy in Kisumu and Mombasa. The Government is opening up all the landing sites for fish so that this country can export 70 per cent of the fish that we catch in our seas and lakes and still be able to keep 30 per cent for domestic consumption which is a very big achievement because the revenue that is generated by fish is a lot. I have also been to the place where he was talking of marine culture where they are building a fish processing plant. The work is at a very advance stage.

I would like to congratulate the President for doing beyond what others are expecting. We might say there is no money in the country but because of the borrowing, things have already been done. The infrastructure in this country is amazing. Even in my constituency where there has never been a tarmac road, the Government has been able to do for us two tarmac roads in Masinga Constituency and the third one is ongoing. The President did not forget the furthest and remotest places of this country. Some people say some places are unreachable by the Government because the President does not go there physically. All the same, we have seen the many projects that have been done. There is one water piping project which is already done connecting three wards that are in my constituency so that the people of Masinga Constituency can have clean water and good sanitation. He has done quite a lot. In Makuyu where Mhe. Jude comes from, he has done a tarmac road where we border. When I am going to Masinga which is towards Nyeri on the right hand side from Makuyu to Garissa Road, it is now very easy for me to reach my other side of the constituency because it is divided twice by Thika River. We have done quite a lot not to mention the TVET institute that has been completed in my constituency. Students who did not attain marks to go to university can now go and learn the skills and knowledge so that they can look for employment. With those few remarks, I support the President’s Speech.

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Member for Central Imenti, Hon. Kirima.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for this opportunity to contribute to the President’s Speech. I must congratulate him because he is a charismatic leader. I must particularly congratulate the President because he is a charismatic leader. When you stand before the House and nation to address the same, know whatever the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

President says may be what is there on the paper or on the ground but I congratulate him because he is very convincing in all things that take place. The President talked of a number of roads which have been developed in the country from the time he took over. It is true I have visited several parts of this country on parliamentary duties. If you go to Luo Nyanza and Western Province, surely the road network has really improved. They are new roads. They are wide enough and you can really find that there are developments. It is no wonder you hear people praising the Handshake. There is a reason why they are happy about the Handshake. This is because as far as the place from where I come, Central Imenti and Meru County in general, I can count a number of roads projects which were launched by the President in 2017 during the time of campaign and none of them have ever taken off. I am here today to put it on record that in Central Imenti, other than the highways, which connect us from one county to the other, and they had no other alternative other than passing through my constituency, I have no tarmac road in my constituency other than the two kilometres, which have been constructed by the Jubilee Government between 2013 and 2021. In addition, there is one from a place called Mworoga, which is a place that borders North Imenti and Central Imenti to a place called Kathita. It was constructed as part of the Ekokokora-Katheri-Kariene-Riaki Road. Those two kilometres were constructed and then the contractor withdrew from the site and those are the only two kilometres in my constituency from Independence until now. Therefore, when we hear Members of Parliament talking about three tarmac roads in their constituencies, we wonder. My constituency is part of the constituencies that voted for His Excellency, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta in droves including the whole of Meru County. Therefore, I am praying that as the President leaves office in ten months, his Presidential Delivery Unit ensures that his legacy lives on by completing these projects which he started. This is because people are still worried about the huge loan debts incurred by the Jubilee Government. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, coming to security as His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta mentioned, some parts of this country are really enjoying. However, when it comes to my constituency, you find that we have been having problems between Tharakas and Imentis because of a boundary dispute. A section of my constituency has not been demarcated. People have no title deeds. There have been skirmishes between the Imentis and the Tharakas. Now what can my people be proud of as pertains to security? I support the Speech of the President and if my concerns are addressed, my people will be happy. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker.

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Member for Likoni, Hon. Mboko Mishi.

Asante sana Mheshimiwa Naibu Spika wa Muda. Ninasimama pia hapa niweze kuzungumzia Hotuba ya Mheshimiwa Rais ambayo aliweza kuzungumzia kuhusiana na taifa letu la Kenya. Na niweze kusema haswa nimenukuu sehemu ambazo tumeona amestawisha sana katika taifa letu la Kenya haswa katika mambo ya miundo misingi; mambo ya barabara. Na niweze kusema, mimi nikiwa natoka pale eneo la Likoni, tumeweza kupata barabara ya Dongo Kundu, ile tumeita Dongo Kundu Bypass . Na nafikiri kufikia Januari, Mheshimiwa Rais ataweza kuja kufungua ile barabara. Na ninajua ile barabara itaweza kutusaidia sana katika uchukuzi na kuweza pia kupunguza msongamano katika kile kivuko cha pale Likoni. Mheshimiwa Rais pia ameweza kutengeneza barabara nyingi sana katika taifa letu la Kenya haswa katika kipindi hiki chake cha pili. Tunaona barabara nyingi sana kule Thika na sehemu nyingi za Kenya. Hata ukiwa pale Mombasa ukiwa unatoka katika sehemu ya Airport The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

utaona miundo msingi wa barabara umeweza kuimarishwa sana. Vile vile hapa kwetu Nairobi kutoka Airport, katika ile Mombasa Road tunaona kuna ukarabati mkubwa wa hali ya juu sana katika mpango wa barabara. Vile vile pia tuliweza kupata ile bridge ambayo inaolea. Ambayo inaweza pia kutusaidia katika msongamano na haswa wakati janga la Korona lilivyokuwa limechacha sana, tuliweza kujengewa mvuko ule kwa muda mfupi sana. Kwa hivyo, ni asante sana kwa Mheshimiwa Rais. Vile vile pia katika mpango wa uchumi wa samawati, tumeona kwamba pale sehemu ya Liwatoni kuna ile tunaita kwa Kiingereza Fish Park, mahali ambapo kutakuwa kunafanyika biashara nyingi sana na shughuli nyingi sana za mambo ya samaki. Isitoshe, tunajua kama Wapwani na watu wa kule kwenye maji, sana tunategemea uchumi huu wa samaki. Kwa hivyo, jambo hili litaweza kuboresha wavuvi wetu na kina mama wetu pia wanaofanya biashara za samaki. Vile vile pia tunaona ya kwamba tuliweza kupata reli. Japo kuwa tunaona hii reli inatusaidia katika uchukuzi, lakini tuna changamoto kiasi tukiangalia bandari yetu na pia tukiangalia kampuni ya Railway ambayo pengine waliweza kuwa katika hii mikataba ya mambo hii ya Standard Gauge Railway ( SGR) ama mambo ya kupita na reli ama usafiri wa reli. Kwa hivyo, ningeomba tu Mheshimwia Rais pamoja na Serikali waangalie mbinu na njia ambazo tutaweza kusaidia taasisi hizi mbili, taasisi ya bandari ile ambayo ni Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) na taasisi ya reli ile ambayo ni Kenya Railway . Hii ni ili wasiweze kupata shida katika kulipa loni hii ambayo tuliweza kuichukua katika ile banki kule Uchina, inayoitwa Exim Bank ili tuweze kuendelea na uchukuzi wetu na pia taasisi zetu ziweze kufanya kazi zao ili Wakenya wetu wasipoteze ajira zao. Vile vile pia, hivi sasa kuna mpango wa kutengeneza kiwanda cha samaki katika sehemu za pwani na tunajua kiwanda hiki kitaweza kujenga ajira na pia kuboresha uchumi katika taifa letu la Kenya. Vile vile katika hiyo samawati tuna ile Port ya Lamu na tunajua sisi wote pale pwani na Kenya kwa jumla tukiwa na hii Port, itatuboreshea biashara katika sehemu za nchi jirani na hata sehemu za ng’ambo zile za nchi zingine za nje. Ili tuweze pia kuboresha uchumi na pia kujenga ajira na pia kujenga maendeleo katika sehemu zetu. Jambo la afya haswa nikiangalia Linda Mama, program hii, inafanyika kikweli na kina mama hawalipi chochote na wanaweza kuzaa bila malipo. Mambo yale ya kuleta umeme katika sehemu zile za mashambani pia yamefanyika na yamekuwa bora zaidi. Kwa mambo ya elimu, watoto kusoma na kuweza kupata asilimia 100 kwa watoto wanaotoka katika shule za primari na shule za msingi na kwenda katika shule ya msingi ni jambo bora. Jambo hili pia tunaona limefanyika. Vitabu pia watoto wamepata na pia tuna programu ambayo inamuwezesha mtoto aweze kupata ujuzi, aweze kuwa na uvumbufu na aweze kujua mambo zaidi na kuweza kujitegemea haswa pia wakati amemaliza shule. Najua janga la Korona lilikuwa changamoto lakini tunaona Mheshimiwa Rais alijaribu sana kuhakikisha vifo vitakuwa vichache...

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Sawa Mheshimiwa . Let us have the Member for West Mugirango, Hon. Kemosi.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for this opportunity to also contribute to the State of the Nation Address by His Excellency the President yesterday. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I was here for the entire period in the afternoon when the Head of State was addressing the nation. I was keenly interested in the state of the economy and the President said for the first quarter, the GDP of the country has grown by about 10 per cent. This is the highest growth in the history of Kenya. It might be true.

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Hon. Kemosi, there seems to be a problem with your microphone.

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): It is better now.

(West Mugirango, FORD-K)

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Hon. Kemosi, wind up in a minute.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I can speak for my constituency. The last time I saw a tarmac road in my constituency was about five years ago. This tarmac road in my constituency was started during the Grand Coalition Government. The Jubilee Government came in and implemented what was started by The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

the coalition government. I can categorically say that I am among the few constituencies who have never seen even 500 meters of a tarmac road since the Jubilee Government started. With those few remarks, I support with reservations the Speech of the Head of State.

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Hon. Kathambi Chepkwony.

Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the State of the Nation Address by the President. When I followed the Address by the President yesterday, I had a lot of concerns. First of all, I want to appreciate the road network in the country. I can also say that I have lobbied and some roads have successfully been completed in my constituency but, I can still mention roads that funds have not been allocated to. In addition, I still have a lot of concern when it comes to security matters. As I stand here, within this year of 2021, I have lost over seven people. No investigations were opened. I get concerns when we talk about security. We are getting a lot of challenges as Members of Parliament. We lobby for vehicles for our police officers but we cannot even get a single one. As I stand here, I have even tried to lobby for my constituency officers to get vehicles from 2017. Njoro Constituency, being a very sensitive constituency in this country, is worrying when matters of security are mentioned here yet we have a lot of challenges on the ground. We have even lobbied for the numbers of anti-stock theft officers to be increased and it is really a thorny issue. I had a lot of interest in the energy sector; the connectivity of electricity. There are a lot of challenges. As I speak, my constituency is composed of six wards. When you go to those wards, you will find many people who do not have electricity. As we are discussing this matter, it should be noted that we are expecting the new Cabinet Secretary to take a lot of action and make sure our people are connected with electricity. When it comes to security matters, we have been let down. A constituency like Njoro which is the second largest in Nakuru County has had to lobby for locations and sub-locations but we have not got even a single location. That means it becomes very hard for service delivery and matters of security to be taken seriously. It also makes it very hard for people to gather more information from the locations and sub-locations because we have been denied them.

Also, through the Address of the President, we appreciate what he talked about COVID - 19 but we still have many loopholes. Kenyans have been hit hard. We have had a lot of losses in businesses and other problems. What I was expecting to hear from the entire Address was if the Government could provide free tests for COVID -19 so that we can know the status of the people and guide the country so that necessary action can be taken.

Lastly, I appreciate the action taken by the Government in relation to education, but we have a lot of challenges when it comes to registration of schools. The CS for Education must caution his officers that the delayed registration of schools in this country has really caused a lot of damage to our children and made them not get their rightful requirements. Lastly, water scarcity in this country is too much; women and girls have suffered a lot. We cannot forget the pastoralists in Northern Kenya and other parts of this country. They are losing livestock at a rate words cannot express. It is shameful for them to lose a lot of their livestock. People are suffering because of lack of…

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Hon. Charity, I give you one minute to wind up. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. Lastly, is a concept the President addressed yesterday relating to climate change. The way it is being taken in this country is like it is no longer a very serious matter to Kenyans. This Parliament should inform our people that climate change is real from the floods, drought, scarcity of water and poor agricultural production we are seeing in this country. Let the ministry lead this country in a different voice so we all take action even if it means planting trees. We can increase the forest cover or at least say no to deforestation in this country. Only then will we save this country. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for the moment you have given me. Let it be known that climate change, water scarcity and insecurity are thorny issues in this country.

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Well said. I see no further interest from Members. That must be Hon. Mose. There is a problem with your mask. Let us have Hon. Mose Shadrack.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me a chance to also air my views regarding the State of the Nation Address by His Excellency the President. To start with, I appreciate and acknowledge his Speech and the various issues he touched on. On the education sector, I appreciate the 100 per cent transition which has taken place during his reign, despite the fact that it is facing serious teething challenges. First, in terms of the preparedness, we have serious challenges like accommodation. We do not have enough classes to accommodate that transition. Second, we are having a serious shortage of teachers to go hand in hand with that transition. Whereas, it is a good thing and we should applaud the Government, it should have been better prepared. So, as to ensure while our children are taught, all of them transit and have a convenient learning environment. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, still on education, as my colleagues have said, if you look at some schools, they are not registered. This is something the CS for Education should seriously take up because the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) gives money to many of these schools. Yet, they are faced with serious challenges in terms of utilising those funds given the requirement that a school must be registered. I also want to talk on the issue of COVID-19. The President actually addressed this issue and stated very clearly the efforts the Government put in place to address it. Many of our Kenyan citizenry find it very difficult to comply with very simple COVID protocols. People are supposed to wash their hands, sanitise, wear masks and even get vaccinated. However, allow me to say, when it comes to the aspect of vaccination, very many people are reluctant to get vaccinated. I want to urge our Kenyan populace wherever they are to ensure they get vaccinated. This is the only way to ensure their immunity is enhanced. Therefore, they should undertake it. In terms of the road network, the Government has made very deliberate efforts. In my constituency… Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if I can have just one minute to conclude.

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): One more minute.

In my constituency, I must say we already have a road being undertaken by the Government from Manga-Motemomwamu-Gekano- Amabuko and a contractor is on site. In terms of electricity the Government has made good efforts. In terms of BBI, we need to allow the courts to ventilate this aspect to finality, without necessarily making any comments which are prejudicial to this pending matter. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I support.

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Hon. Joash Nyamoko or you are not ready? Just use the microphone next to you.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to add my voice to the State of the Nation Address made by His Excellency the President yesterday. From the outset, I support his Speech because it gave us an opportunity to go through the journey he has taken - from the first time he came to Parliament - and his growth to the point where he became the President of this country. It also gave him an opportunity to tell the entire country what his Government has done, from the time he took over in 2013 to date. He actually gave us his appraisal report, right from infrastructure all the way to social matters. It gave us a reflection of the entire performance of the Jubilee Government which I think has a good score.I did not get a proper glimpse of the entire Speech because I was not in, but from the information I have read in the newspapers, he gave a very clear score that the Jubilee Government has been very active in laying a strong foundation, especially in infrastructure. We are likely to start feeling the economic benefits to the common man in the next two to three years. I support the President’s Address. It gives a very good score for those of us who were elected on the Jubilee ticket.

I am sorry that you ambushed me, as I was not prepared for it. Nevertheless, the President did very well in all aspects because he gave an account of what he has been able to do in the last nine years. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker.

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Well, at least you had something to say. Am I right to say that there is no further interest? Hon. Wahome, you seem to be…

I was just settling down.

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Go ahead.

I can see that the Leader of the Majority Party is checking whether it is Hon. Alice Wahome. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute.

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Yes. You have a new look. You look very different and good.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for the compliment. You know we are approaching Christmas. It is definitely important that we start preparing ourselves. The matter before us is important. Unfortunately, there is not much time. I listened very carefully to the President’s Address. I agree with those who have raised an issue with the time the President appeared in Parliament. The tradition of this House is to keep time. Parliament has always kept time. It is not fair for Members of Parliament to wait for His Excellency the President for over one hour. Without appearing like we are lecturing the President, it is important that we raise it as a matter of concern as a House. Going forward, we want the Executive to respect Parliament’s scheduled time. I expected to hear about housing in terms of numbers. How many houses has the Government built under the Big Four Agenda? What has stalled? Why have we not made significant progress in that respect? Kenyans were looking forward to that. The first phase of the completed houses went very fast. The Government should tell us what the real challenge is. Is it The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

funding? Were the housing funds delayed? Is it poor execution of projects? Is it the cartels that always want to control things? Are there people planning on how to get into this issue? I was also unhappy because I did not hear of good progress in the tea and coffee sectors. Farmers in my county and in tea and coffee growing areas have been waiting for better returns on their produce. We still do not have that. Therefore, farmers require subsidies on fertilisers. Those products are still very expensive and the Government has not taken this mater seriously by providing sufficient subsidies. Maize farming has literally collapsed. These people know why projects like the Galana Kulalu Irrigation Scheme have not taken off. I will say this on the Floor of the House that the information coming forward is that cartels have killed the Galana-Kulalu Project. Therefore, on food security, especially with the famine going on in Turkana and North Eastern which always happens, Kenyans are faced with a problem. Generally, the case of the economy was not well addressed. I do not think that it is fair to say that we have had good growth. Was it 0.6 per cent? Even though we appreciate that there is the COVID-19 pandemic, the manner in which we have handled it does not augur well. We have been slow even in terms of vaccination. We have not been told who misused the money meant for COVID-19 interventions. Therefore, we could have possibly done very well had we put in place proper mechanisms for interventions, so that the people whose businesses closed can properly access funding. The youth are still waiting…

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Wind up in a minute.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. We must never forget the youth because our country’s future lies with them. The growth and development of our youths must be a priority for this country. As they leave universities, they should be able to get into the job market, even as trainees. That is not happening. Universities are being mishandled. I expected a better approach to these issues because of the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) and the lack of funding in universities, which is still a challenge. When we went to university, we had accommodation, tuition and even living allowances. When will we be able to do this? I hope that His Excellency will have another opportunity to tell the country what he has achieved before his term is over. All said and done, the handshake has been the biggest detriment to this Government. Therefore, the poor performance that we are seeing could be attributed to the handshake. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker.

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): There being no further interest from Members, I call upon the Leader of Majority Party to reply.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I usually do not remove my mask, but I note the limited number of Members in the House, so I request to do so. Let me begin by thanking Members for their contributions to the State of the Nation Address by His Excellency the President since this morning. I congratulate those who have contributed and note that their constituents have been well-represented. I also thank my Majority Whip for stepping in to move the Motion on my behalf during the Morning Sitting. I also thank the Seconder and Committee Chairpersons who have covered different areas. The Address covered in detail the very successful response to the COVID-19 challenge which has affected the world in different ways. Some countries have emerged poorer and worse, while others are still confused. Fortunately, the confirmation we got yesterday was that Kenya has emerged better, which is very heartwarming. We have not only managed to control the crisis but The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

also taken advantage of opportunities emerging from the crisis. Several examples were given in terms of companies that have innovations and infrastructure investments made as part of responding to this challenge. All those are contained in the Report. In short, the confirmation is that we are building back better. The President also revisited the journey towards the realisation of the shared vision of our founding fathers - let me also add, and of our founding mothers. Those had been identified as the need to eradicate the indignities that come from ignorance, disease and hunger. This ignorance, disease and hunger could be broadly interpreted or just looked at in terms of academic ignorance, disease as we know it or hunger of food as we know it. But, the President broadened these. He articulated how his administration has attempted to respond to this challenge from our founding fathers through what I summarised as a multi-faceted yet connected four thematic frames or approaches. When you look at all this, the first two frames basically capture economic development. We have economic acceleration and big push investments under those two frames. When you look at that, it mirrors what is captured in the economic pillar within the Vision 2030. Much as we have been doing this since 2013, I note that, for example, even President Biden has used a similar approach in the revival of America. It is through what he is calling his bottom-up middle-out model which is anchored on infrastructure investments with the motivation to close that infrastructure gap. It is to build the middleclass, build the infrastructure base and help uplift the people at the bottom. It is different people using different approaches but I am glad that, at least, Kenya may even have shown America what to do. When we look at economic acceleration, it involves what the President referred to as the multiplication of economic fundamentals. This is not just at the national level but also at the county level. Whatever investments that are made at the national level, in terms of road networks, infrastructure and health to catalyse further development, they are done at all those other levels. Several examples were given and Members have been talking about them in their constituencies, including the advancements in health, so that Kenyans do not have to go looking for health services outside Kenya. One of the realisations that came is that you will be left with no PPEs when there is a global lockdown and you do not have your own productive capacity. We saw examples of what is happening in Kitui. If you do not have your production capacity or response capacity in terms of healthcare, it means, even with your money and international insurance, you will not be able to access those health services you are insured for internationally and with lockdowns across the country. Hence, we need to have that capacity here. The confirmation is that we now have them. Those are the things we can celebrate. In terms of the big push investments, we heard about the new ones like the express ways, the SGR and all that. Most important is the revival of the debt capital in all stalled projects like what happened in the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC). The KMC is something that was basically being used as a cash cow for some people. There was exploitation of farmers. It is now becoming something that is used to reward producers of raw materials who are the farmers. The third frame the President talked about involves the thematic frame he termed as “the restoration of dignity”. This basically involves investments, not at the economic level but social investments required in the water sector, in health, education and security. It is the investment required to secure the rights in Article 43 of our Bill of Rights to ensure that every Kenyan can have a good and quality life. The thing that really touches on the pain of the ordinary Kenyans is whether they have education and water, and whether mothers and sisters are receiving quality care in maternity services. Again, I have been listening to Members on this. Progress in this area is The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

awesome. It has been quite progressive. Everyone is talking about a health centre being done in their area. We have seen the schools. We have seen the continuous investment of over 25 per cent in education. Most important is our investments in not just internal security but also external security to ensure that Kenyans thrive knowing that they are guarded. The fourth frame is political stabilisation. This is where the President admitted that he has made his effort using the model he believed would work, but challenges still abound. Like I said before, if you look at these four frames, the first two frames revolve or talk to issues about the economic pillar within the Vision 2030. The third frame is about the social pillar. The fourth frame is about the political pillar within the Vision 2030. Again, he is linking what was the thinking in the 2007 one to the one of 2013. The journey continues. I believe that is where the President mentioned that it is not a journey for one person alone. It is something that we, including this House, need to be enjoined in as we start looking for that future of our children. Based on that and from that background, allow me to say: yes, the President did his constitutional duty. He has rendered an account of his term in office. We now must ask ourselves what to do. We are the leaders who have been given this Report and we have seen all that happening. We are the ones who appropriate money into the future. We must ask ourselves several critical questions. I have listed a few and I would like to share them, for the record. The first question is: Where do we go from here? We know it is only nine months to the end of His Excellency President Kenyatta’s tenure. He has said that we have done 180,000 houses. The programme is on. We know there were issues with the emasculation of the law by the courts. It is now being freed. Perhaps, we can do much better. If we then go from there, we know what he has been doing in uniting the country, his Big Four Agenda and the war on graft. The good thing is that, and I saw the reaction of Members yesterday, we have as a country matured politically. You note, for example, that the former Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga, can now go and campaign in Mt. Kenya, on a unity platform rightly named “Azimio la Umoja”, without people reacting negatively. You will see His Excellency the Deputy President, William Ruto, campaigning in the Nyanza Region without having problems.

There was a problem.

There are limited problems that will appear everywhere. But, by and large, people are free to move in every part of the country and sell their policies. We need to recognise that politicians from across the divide build consensus and coalitions. We have seen bipartisan working relationships in committees of this House. This is something that is unprecedented. We had seen instances where Members look at one another as enemies. We saw water bottles fly in this House. We have not seen that this time and so, we must celebrate. We have come of age. Beyond 2022, we hope that this spirit of unity will be at the core of our politics. And we must do this for the sake of future generations.

The Leader of the Majority Party, do you want to be informed by Hon. Wahome while replying?

I am not quite sure because the Kondele matter is still under investigation.

You already know what she wants to inform you about?

Yes, she hinted. The electioneering period is known to deal a big blow to the economy. His Excellency gave examples of what happens every election cycle. It is something we need to think of. Do we want to continue losing lives as happened in The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

1992, 1997, 2007 and the disruptions in 2013 and 2017? We know the impact it also has on investors. They get threatened. One year before elections, and you can already see signals of the same, you find investors want to close shop to come back only after elections when they think there is stability. We are being called upon as leaders to build on what the President has started, especially in terms of bringing the country together and creating a culture of unity irrespective of tribe, political leaning, political convictions or religion. The sole aim is to protect our fragile economy and build a more cohesive society that will embrace our cultural diversity and at the same time navigate the political differences, so that Hon. Alice Wahome’s grandchildren can feel comfortable to move from Kandara to Lamu and get suitors there and settle without feeling that they are strangers. That is all we are being called upon to do. In terms of the Big 4 Agenda, we can see the many things that have been done. On the war on graft, we have seen county government heads being brought to account. Cases that perhaps would not have been taken to court have been prosecuted. Let me go to the second question. How then do we secure the gains that have been made through this unique model, which I christen Uhurunomics for purposes of this debate? He talked about it and you could see the rationale and how it is linked to other sectors and the output expected. It is something that has never been explained in this House. Perhaps it is something that we should also work on. To my mind, the answer will lie in our leadership. We need to think of leaders who understand the President’s vision and are able and willing to carry on the good work that he has started. For us in Parliament, our job is to ensure that necessary Bills that come before us are passed. I want to thank Members for fast-tracking all the Bills we have brought here. As a House, we appreciate what the President mentioned, and he is a firm believer, in a vibrant micro, small and medium enterprises sector, which we all recognise is a key driver of the economy. As legislators, we need to ensure a steady growth of the sector. I know we have passed several laws and allocated money in that regard. As we build infrastructure and put up social investments to cushion those at the bottom of the pyramid, we can use this sector to generate employment so that we can empower a bigger Kenyan populace. The third issue is that we have achieved unmet dreams given our political scenario. It is good that we appreciate the fact that we could have done more if the environment was conducive enough. I have heard arguments from both sides of the divide. Some say, yes, we could have done much better without the ‘handshake’. I have also heard that, yes, we could have done much better if the Deputy President, who is constitutionally assigned the role of principal assistant to the President, had not started bringing trouble from his side. This cause of confusion may also be a result of people playing safe by creating centres of power. The sufferers, when the two elephants fight, are the people of Kenya. I think we can learn from the past. President Moi kept telling us ‘ siasa mbaya, maisha mbaya ’. We have seen examples of that. I could see the pain the President was going through when he tried explaining what he has done. I am not sure if it is ‘I’ or ‘we’, but if we had unity of purpose, we would even be talking about…

Who is that Member making a phone call? Who is that? You are out of order. You cannot do that in the Chamber. And I cannot quite recognise who it is. Go on, Leader of the Majority Party. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. It is obviously very clear that if we had unity of purpose we would have achieved far much more, including the search for unity which the President said is pending. As we know, unity is really a by-product of political goodwill among players that aim to hold political power. For what does it benefit any person to get power but then you cannot exercise it because the country is divided? We have seen that happen in1992 and 1997. In 2003, there was total unity. One year after, there was disunity. And we saw the by-product of that disunity in 2007. As such, we should be much more careful and aware of the impact that our quest for power has on the health of our nation and on service delivery. At the end of the day, and that came out clearly from the President, Kenya is bigger than each and every one of us. A time comes when political ambition should be shelved for the nation to prosper. We can only achieve our dreams in an environment of peace and unity. When the President fights corruption, it is not political persecution or weaponisation of the fight. He has done his part and he continues to do more. It is up to us leaders to take up the occasion and exhibit good leadership. Coming to the last two issues, can Kenyans seriously examine candidates at all levels and make informed choices during election? The answer to this is both yes and no. Power belongs to the people as given to them by Article 38 of the Constitution. It is up to the people to elect the person they like. As the President prepares for the end of his tenure, I want to ask Kenyans to be aware that it is important to vote for leaders who shall carry on his legacy of transformation and not reverse the gains or plunge the country back to regression. Kenyan politics, to a larger extent, is based on ethnicity and tribal backgrounds. The ‘mtu wetu’ syndrome may have plagued Kenyan politics and still continues to do so as evidenced by various protest groups based on ethnicity who feel their politicians have been targeted by certain actions or that their person has been mentioned not necessarily because of what he wants to do but because it is ‘mtu wetu’ . With this in mind, it is our duty as leaders and following the spirit of the handshake and other unity forums or initiatives, that we ensure Kenyans are not duped into voting along tribal lines. They should make firm choices through identifying and supporting leaders they deem fit morally and those that hold the people’s interests at heart. I am talking of all levels: ward, constituency, county and the national level. The next question I was to put to the House as an interview choice is: Who will educate the masses to create that enlightened citizenry to vote wisely to secure our future? About 50 years ago, universities in the UK had an extra vote. It was believed that the ordinary citizen may not vote with his brains and it needed the people who were intellectuals to also cast votes. If you were a university lecturer in Oxford, for example, you could have had two votes: one in the university constituency and the other in your local constituency so as to improve the quality of the vote. In the USA, there was a law in terms of minimum education for you to vote which was only removed in the last 40 years or so by the Congress because it was being used to discriminate against the black communities. However, there is a realization that allowing people to vote without enlightenment of what they are voting for is more dangerous than not voting at all. Unfortunately for us in Kenya, we seem to be having this. We vote and within three months, people are then asking why they voted for such and such a person, and demanding a re-vote with others campaigning against them. What do we need to do to educate our citizens as leaders? Civic education is necessary. It is a collective responsibility but would require a multi-sectoral approach. I heard Members mention that even as stakeholders come together to ensure we have credible Elections in 2022, the real beneficiary of that coming together… The Chairman of IEBC The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.

is pulling himself out yet he requires all these people to support him on election day. He requires the police, lawyers and all these people but he is now telling them he is independent. It was put well in the morning that independence does not necessarily mean working alone. It also includes interdependence. At the decision level, nobody will interfere with your decision but, you must work together and carry everyone along. As leaders, I expect we have a platform that can influence a society. We should use it to educate the masses on what qualities to look for in a leader. We have the experience. Sometimes, wolves may adopt sheep clothing to blend in an attack from within and this is at all levels. Many Kenyans, more so the young generation may not be aware of this. Let us be role models to be emulated and let us take any opportunity that we have to remind them that a good leader is futuristic, development oriented and visionary; carrying on exactly where the visual President Uhuru will leave it. It would be unfortunate that without these investments, all these investors lining up to sign up, we end up with a situation where they all have to go to the neighbouring countries because they cannot see the bigger vision of where Kenya is going in the future. We must protect Kenyans from predatory campaigns being conducted by various leaders whose aim is to clinch power at all costs. As much as we will play the role of civic educators and reason with the populists on the need to exercise their right to vote, you must also call those leaders who are out to take advantage of voters; leaders who have no interest in the wellbeing of Wanjiku; and leaders who have no plan on how to revive the economy but hell-bent on need to buy positions and power. We must call them out. That is the best we can do for this country as leaders. Lastly, we have a choice to view a partially filled glass of water as either half empty or half full. The half empty brigade will usually concentrate on what is missing. They will look for errors, timing, processes, its content, what was to be, and conveniently give a blind eye on what has been achieved so far. I heard comments like the President was late, the Speech was too long and that it would have been simplified. Those are the half empty brigade. They do not want to see the richer content; it is like looking for errors in everything. We are only seeing half empty. On the other hand, the optimistic half full brigade will look at the glass as half full, recognise that efforts have been made and with full of hope that more is on the way to make the glass full for everyone. Some will even offer solutions to accelerate the full filling of that glass. I would want to imagine that Members of this House would be part of the purveyors of hope; people who will be telling others yes, we have heard from the President what he has done and as leaders, we undertake and will continue the journey from here so that when President Uhuru Kenyatta retires in August, all that has been done will not die. Again, we have choices to help the Kenyan people think whether they want to work with naysayers who never see anything being done or people who see half being done.

I am responding. Sorry, your time is up. Let me conclude by asking Members of the House…

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Hon. Wahome, unfortunately not. The Leader of the Majority Party is making his reply.

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Sorry. If Hon. Wahome was here like me from morning, she would know I am basically responding to issues as they came to the Floor of the House. There are Members who looked at the Speech from both sides.

Let me conclude by asking Members of this House to reflect on the wisdom of the late President, Theodore Roosevelt of United States of America whose observations cannot be more relevant than now. He stated that “It is not the critic who counts nor the man who points out how strong a man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is in the arena, whose face is marred by dust, sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, however, who strives to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who sweats himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows that in the end, the triumphs are of high achievement, and who are the worst if he fails, at least fails, while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat.” Let me implore all of us here to be in a category of those seeing the glass as half full; to be of great enthusiasm, great devotions and the best know that in the end of trial of high achievement as purveyors of hope, that the glass would soon be full through our collective effort. I beg to reply.

(Hon. (Ms.) Soipan Tuya): Hon. Members, with that, we conclude the debate on the President’s State of the Nation Address.