Published here is the full text of the Presidential Speech on the occassion of the State Opening of the 10th Parliament.
It
is my pleasure to welcome Honourable Members to the Second Session of
the Tenth Parliament. Let me begin by congratulating each one of the
Honourable Members for winning the confidence of wananchi by being
elected to this August House. I am especially pleased to welcome the
new Lady Members of Parliament, whose numbers have increased to
twenty-one.
Before
proceeding with my remarks this afternoon, I wish, first of all, to
request honourable Members to join me in paying our respects to our two
colleagues who lost their lives under tragic circumstances. These are
the late Member of Parliament for Embakasi Constituency, Honourable
Melitus Mugabe Were, and the late Member of Parliament for Ainamoi
Constituency, Honourable David Kimutai Too who passed away in January
this year. May I ask all of you to rise as we observe one minute's
silence in their remembrance... Thank you.
As
a nation, we have come through a challenging two months since the
December 27th general elections. The post-election violence that saw
more than 1,000 people killed, over 300,000 displaced and billions of
shillings worth of property burnt or looted shook our sense of
nationhood. I ask you once again to rise and join me in observing a
minute of silence in remembrance of those who lost their lives during
the post-election violence.... Thank you.
In
addition to the death toll, the post-election violence disrupted lives
and destroyed farms, businesses and residential properties. We cannot
watch our brothers and sisters endure such hardships. My Government has
set up a National Humanitarian Assistance Fund with an initial
endowment of 1 billion shillings to provide humanitarian assistance and
resettle the displaced persons. We have also established a new
Directorate for Resettlement that will oversee the resettlement of the
internally displaced persons. These institutions will assist internally
displaced persons in farming areas to regain their livelihoods through
provision of free seeds and other farming inputs. We are also designing
an emergency programme for economic reconstruction and restoration. The
programme will mobilize resources locally and internationally to be
used in repairing and reconstructing infrastructure that were badly
damaged during the violence.
The
recent crisis has caused me to reflect deeply on the half a century of
my active participation in the management of our public affairs. During
this time, I have come to appreciate and respect the resilience of our
people and our country. I have seen Kenya go through some very critical
moments. Each time, our people have used the crisis as a crucial
turning point from which they have come out more focused and determined
to stay on course so as to realize our collective vision of a free,
just and prosperous nation.
The
events of the last two months have offered us an opportunity to look
inwards in order to fully comprehend the weaknesses and threats as well
as the strengths and opportunities we have as a nation. Indeed, Kenyans
will always prefer peace over conflict, prosperity over desolation,
unity over discord, and justice over injustice. This is why on February
28th, 2008, I and Honourable Raila Odinga accepted and signed the
National Accord because our people had spoken clearly that they wanted
one Kenya, in which all lived in peace, justice, and harmony. Kenyans
expected no less from either one of us, and the people have embraced
the Accord with joy and renewed hope. We believe the Accord is the
first step towards achieving a prosperous and stable future for all
Kenyans. It opens a new chapter in the management of our national
affairs. I believe Honourable Members will agree that the Accord is a
victory for all Kenyans, laying the foundation for peace and stability
in our country. The successful implementation of the Accord will
require goodwill, unity, good faith and integrity from this House and
all our country's leaders.
I
urge honourable Members to ensure that all the necessary bills to
implement the Accord and other social and economic reforms are dealt
with promptly so that Kenya can be fully restored to, and even exceed
its former glory. In this regard, we will, as the Coalition Government,
introduce four bills that should be accorded the highest priority,
namely;
· The National Accord and Reconciliation Bill,
· The Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill,
· The Establishment of Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission Bill, and
· The Establishment of the Ethnic Relations Commission of Kenya Bill.
Kenya
has witnessed some real and irreversible changes since the year 2003.
In the political arena, Kenyans are now enjoying their freedoms of
association and expression without fear. As a people, we are now fully
aware of our rights and freedoms to do whatever we want. At times,
however, it is evident that we are yet to fully comprehend that real
freedom and liberty also comes with the responsibility of ensuring that
in enjoying our rights, we do not do harm to others. We have made
impressive gains in the social sector. We have seen primary school
enrollment grow by over 2 million children because of free primary
education. Similarly, secondary school enrollment has almost doubled in
the last five years because of a higher transition rate and the recent
introduction of free secondary education.
Moreover,
our country is more caring of the weak and vulnerable among us. We now
have a programme that provides financial support to guardians of
HIV/AIDS affected orphans, which will grow from 12,500 participating
households to more than 30,000 this year. Children under five, pregnant
mothers and patients suffering from HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria continue
to receive free treatment and drugs in all our public health
facilities. In addition, our economy has consistently performed well,
with the growth rate rising from 0.2 percent in 2002 to nearly 7
percent last year.
All
sectors have performed well, with key sectors such as agriculture,
transport, communications, tourism, manufacturing and trade all growing
at an average of 5 to 10 percent annually in the last three years. The
informal sector has received policy attention with the passage of the
Microfinance Act to support small and medium enterprises. We have also
made progress in building of markets to enable street vendors do their
business legally and without harassment. We have, as a nation, received
commendations for our achievements. These include commendations for our
improved business environment from the World Bank, and for our public
service reforms from the United Nations, among others. Indeed, although
we continue to face many challenges, we have a lot to celebrate about
our country, and we have created a solid foundation on which to build
its future. In this respect, I am confident that we will soon overcome
the setbacks we have suffered recently and our country will resume its
upward path in all aspects of development once we begin to implement
our coalition Government programme. It is for this reason that we have
put together a high level committee with five members each from both
sides to synergise, harmonise and highlight priority policies and
programmes proposed in the PNU, ODM and ODM-K manifestoes into a joint
policy and programme strategy.
This
strategy will give priority to activities that positively affect the
livelihoods and conditions of our poor people, while promoting
equitable opportunities for development throughout the country. For
instance, slum upgrading, construction of public markets and support to
small-scale farmers, livestock producers and operators of small
businesses will be accorded top priority. The joint medium term
strategy will build on the foundations of the successful Economic
Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation. And later this
year, we expect to table a Sessional Paper on Vision 2030. The
Vision represents our collective commitment as Kenyans to transform our
country into a middle income economy underpinned by political
stability, social justice as well as equitable economic and social
transformation.
I
will now briefly outline our Government's legislative and policy
proposals in several key sectors. Let me begin by thanking the last
Parliament for passing 17 bills into law last year. These include, the
Political Parties bill, the Constituency Development Fund Act, the
Media Act and several labour sector laws. These laws are expected to
improve our country's social, political and economic environment.
However, the 10th Parliament faces an even more pressing agenda and
cannot afford to conduct itself in the usual manner. I, therefore,
expect the House to work twice as hard to achieve the ambitious
legislative agenda that will be brought to this House. I wish to point
out that what I am proposing today as the Government's legislative and
policy agenda to this House will be augmented further in the coming
weeks and months. This will be done through new bills and policies that
will be developed from the synergy and harmonization of the manifestos
of the three main parties to the coalition.
The
past five years have seen the agriculture sector perform robustly from
the policies implemented by my Government. We, therefore, expect it to
recover quickly from the recent setbacks. To improve market performance
of several key commodities, we will propose the following legislative
and policy agenda;
- to amend the Coffee Act 2001 to provide for direct sales of coffee,
to amend the Sugar Act 2001 to restructure the sugar industry,
to introduce bills and sessional papers covering the dairy, poultry and fishing industries, among others.
Another
sector that has been performing extremely well is the tourism industry.
Despite the recent downturn, the sector has enormous potential to
recover and grow rapidly, providing foreign exchange and creating
employment opportunities. To enable the sector perform even better, the
Government will table three bills, namely, the Environmental Impact
Assessment Regulations Guidelines, the Tourism Bill and the Wildlife
Bill. As we undertake to deal decisively with poverty and inequitable
development, my Government acknowledges the crucial role played by
cooperatives in the production and marketing of produce as well as
mobilizing savings and providing credit to the majority of Kenyans. In
this regard we will be tabling a Sessional Paper on Cooperative
Development Policy and a bill on Savings and Credit Cooperatives.
While
we have done well in implementing the free primary and free secondary
education programmes, we do require legislation to entrench the reforms
in the entire education sector within our country's laws. In this
regard, my Government plans to introduce legislation that will regulate
the role of non-public entities such as civil society and international
education providers as well as propose the establishment of a Technical
Industrial Vocation and Entrepreneurial Training Authority. Moreover,
we do recognize that we will not be able to achieve the goals of VISION
TWENTY THIRTY without entrenching a culture of science, technology and
innovation in our society. In this regard, my Government will present
to the House several proposals, including:
- a National Policy for Science, Technology and Innovation,
a bill to upgrade the National Council of Science and Technology, to the National Commission of Science and Technology,
the creation of the National Science Foundation and National Innovation Agency.
In
the health sector, my Government proposes to review the Public Health
Act so as to consolidate 23 different Public health laws into a single
Act of Parliament. We will also table to this House policy papers on
Health Care Financing, Health Services Commission and Decentralised
Funding of Health Facilities. With regard to the youth of this country,
my Government will propose amendments to the Armed Forces Act to enable
youth trained under the National Youth Service be absorbed in the armed
forces. We will also table before the House a bill to provide for the
creation of a National Youth Council. Further, my Government will
re-table the Sessional Paper on Employment Policy for discussion in the
House on the urgent and critical matter of providing enough jobs for
our young people.
With
regard to gender, we will continue to support the current policy of
ensuring that 30 percent of public appointments and new employment
opportunities are reserved for women. We now have more Lady Members of
Parliament than at any time in the past, and I expect to see more
gender friendly laws and policies emerge from the 10th Parliament in
relation to its predecessors. With regard to the protection of the
family and children, we propose amendments to the Children's Act 2001
for better implementation.
The
proper management and regulation of our country's physical
infrastructure is among the highest priorities of my Government. In
this regard, we plan to introduce the Information Communication
Technology Bill as a regulatory framework for broadcasting, electronic
transactions and cyber crime. In the Water sector, we will table the
National Water Harvesting and Storage Policy to facilitate harnessing
and storage of recurrent floodwaters as well as the National Shared
Water Resources Policy to promote equitable development of water
resources nationally. We also expect to undertake the 2nd Mzima Springs
project to ensure sufficient water supply to Mombasa and its
surroundings. And to ensure that our roads network is better
constructed and maintained, my Government will make fully operational
the Urban, Rural and National Highways Authorities that were legislated
under the Roads Act in the last Parliament. We will further introduce a
policy on the registration of contractors as well as the creation of a
national construction company to build capacity among local
contractors. We will also introduce legislation touching on the
Protection of Road Reserves, Registration of Engineers and Architects
as well as Quantity Surveyors.
With
regard to local authorities, we propose to bring to the House new
amendments to the Local Government Act to enable the direct election of
mayors and county council chairmen. This reform is long overdue and
this Parliament should deliberate on it as a matter of priority. To
ensure proper planning and development of our urban areas as well as
the proper enforcement of laws and by-laws for regulation of urban
development, we will table in the House proposals to set up a National
Urban and Metropolitan Areas Authority. To promote the development of
affordable housing we will present the Housing Bill and a Landlord and
Tenant Bill.
With
regard to national security, my Government will continue to propose
legislation and policies that safeguard our national security, while
also ensuring protection of our people's rights and freedoms. We
propose to bring to the House several bills touching on national
security. We will table before the House the Organised Crimes Bill to
contain the emergence of organized gangs and militias which bode ill
for our society. We will also table the Anti-money Laundering Bill as
well as introduce amendments to the Chief's Act and Firearms Act.
I
wish to propose that Members become fully involved in promoting and
leading the district peace and reconciliation committees. This is
necessary because the post-election violence saw communal relations
stretched to breaking point. Parliament, as the representative body of
all Kenyans, must now rise to its historic responsibility and play its
role fully in restoring peace, security as well as law and order in our
beloved country. Honourable Members, you must now become the
ambassadors of peace and reconciliation in your constituencies, among
your communities and throughout the country. Kenyans need to hear and
be reassured by their political leaders that they can live, own
property and do business in any part of the country without fear of
prejudice, harassment or persecution. In this regard, we propose to
bring to the House a comprehensive policy and accompanying legislation
that will ensure that the threat to our national security and social
cohesion caused by negative ethnicity is neutralized for the well being
of our country.
As
I conclude my remarks, Mr. Speaker, allow me to reiterate the need to
build and strengthen the capacity of honourable members to do their
work. In this regard, I urge the Parliamentary Service Commission to
ensure that members are provided with sufficient research and technical
assistants as well as computer and office facilities during this
session. We have a chance to make the tenth parliament a meeting of
minds and an avenue for a great competition of ideas that will reflect
the highest levels of constructive debate in our nation's history.
Finally,
Mr. Speaker, I wish the Honourable Members a highly productive Session
in which the agenda of building a new Kenya overrides any other
individual or factional agendas. This is what Kenyans are asking of the
10th Parliament, to undertake its historic task of building a new
dispensation for a new Kenya. With these remarks, Mr. Speaker, it is
now my pleasure to declare the Second Session of the 10th Parliament
officially open.
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