H.E. Mr. Richard Opembe:

I thank the Chairman and the members for their questions, which I will now go through very quickly. Deputy Darragh O'Brien asked where Irish Aid will go. It will go towards education, which as Deputy Barrett has ably said, is crucial. In answering this matter I will also address some of the previous questions. Kenya already has a programme of free primary education and is now moving towards free secondary education. We hope that university education will also be free within the next five years. This is a central area in which we would like to see the co-operation of Irish Aid. It is a focal point for the Government that education now become the critical tool to open up all of the other spaces in our country.

With regard to the situation around human rights and refugees, the Kenyan constitution gives great prominence to human rights. In every aspect of the constitution the individual is granted prime importance, be they Kenyan or otherwise. Kenya hosts two major refugee camps, Dadaab and Kakuma, and Irish Aid has played a central role in assisting with them. The current political climate in Kenya is essentially based on the constitution in that we have systems and institutions that can make decisions that are obeyed politically. We have human rights access for any organisation that comes in to provide positive information and guidance to ensure that we can articulate our human rights as per our constitution. With regard to our slums and other poor communities, through our constitution which was promulgated in 2010, we have created 47 counties, each funded by the national Government. It is through this funding that the counties articulate their own development agenda as well as that of the national Government. Almost €60 million per year is given to the counties to allow them become responsible for managing and developing themselves.

In response to Deputy Crowe, the motto "Harambee",or "Let us all pull together", has been a clarion call for Kenya since the 1960s. Education and agriculture come to the fore of the areas in which we would look to Irish Aid to sustain. Agriculture encompasses fisheries and, as I mentioned in my statement, a number of memoranda of understanding have been signed in the fisheries and agricultural sectors. Funding for many of these programmes will have a limiting aspect. No tangible research has been done, for example, to identify what fish stocks we might have in our oceanic space along the Mombassa coast into the Indian Ocean. Our economic stimulus programme built 3,000 ponds around the country for inland fishing and acquaculture purposes, but funding was, and indeed remains a challenge today. It is hoped that now, by virtue of the fact that we have signed several memoranda of understanding in this sector, we can start moving into these areas.

With regard to environmental matters, our environment ministry has increased our forest cover. This was certainly a challenge as parts of Kenya are becoming semi-arid due to deforestation. One of the reasons why we are looking at the set-up of the Dadaab camp, for example, is that the high number of refugees accommodated there is having a negative impact on the environment of the region. The camp is causing the loss of tree cover because most of the trees have been cut down and used for firewood. When one is housing 300,000 to 400,000 people in one space, providing the energy requirement for cooking and so forth becomes a challenge. We hope that Irish Aid will be able to help look at these factors and see how we can best address them.

Police harassment is not something that happens willfully, certainly in so far as we as a Government are concerned. The problems lies in the definition of what people do to have the police stop a situation before it gets out of control. Demonstrations, for example, are actually enshrined in the constitution, meaning citizens can picket or go on strike. In the certain instances where people take advantage of these situations, however we find hooligans and thieves. People who might have no good will towards expressing themselves start attacking the property of others and the police have to move in to quell the situation before it gets out of hand. The committee may have heard of situations in which entire supermarkets were broken into. That is not an expression but rather an abuse of a right or of a human right.

I return to the question of free education. As I said, since 2010 we have been working towards providing free education up to university level. We are somewhat behind Ireland in this regard but if we follow the same path and receive guidance and assistance from well-wishers like Irish Aid we will then be able to factor in a free education programme that will be sustainable right the way through, meaning that we will have no cutting of links within the funding parameters.

Looking at Government policy around development goals as based on the sustainable goals initiatives, the Government is looking to prioritise four of the total 17 areas involved here. One of these priorities is the access to water and sanitation, irrespective of whether people are living in a slum or otherwise. We are also looking at environmental aspects, because a clean environment will ensure a healthy flow of water which will in turn reduce the spread of disease-causing germs. As I mentioned at the outset, there was a high occurrence of malaria and everything that comes with it.

Education will play a key role also, in access to a quality education. It is good to have a free primary or secondary programme or a university programme, but if it is not a quality programme, it becomes a challenge.

How do we increase food security and ensure there is enough food for people to have sufficient nutrition, which is a major challenge in many countries. We are tackling that issue in Kenya and we are examining ways to ensure that by the application of our Vision 2030 we will meet the sustainable goals initiatives that have been set forth. We hope by 2030 to have achieved 90% if not 100% of them.