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{
    "id": 1014359,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1014359/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 250,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tigania West, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mutunga",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13495,
        "legal_name": "John Kanyuithia Mutunga",
        "slug": "john-kanyuithia-mutunga"
    },
    "content": " Thank you Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for the opportunity to speak to this Motion. This is an important day for Kenya because a lot has gone on in terms of legislation and much has not been done. We make laws in this House and they are not implemented. I would like to specifically touch on matters agriculture. In the year 2013, two laws were passed by this House, namely, the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) Act and the Crops Act. In the Crops Act, we suggested that there would be amalgamation of the former boards into one and that was done. The AFA was formed without a board. To date, there is no board that should guide that particular institution. Right now, we are disengaging or dismembering AFA into individual boards. We have been discussing the Bill on the sugar board and another one on the tea board. We will soon be discussing the coffee board. We will then be discussing the horticultural board. We will also go back to discuss the oil and nuts board and the fisheries board. The question is: If this House passed a law that presupposed that we should have a body called the Agriculture and Food Authority, why did the ministry not put together a board that would guide the institution? Without a board, no decisions can be made. Moreover, an interim management committee was set up to make sure that this law was implemented. This law had a specific deadline upon which it would have become effective whether they wanted it or not. Upon approaching that deadline, some hurried mechanisms were put in place and then an interim management committee, which I happen to be a member, was set up and the law was more or less implemented. However, the remaining part of the executive was not done which was the appointment of the board. We even recruited a chairperson which was part of the terms of reference and this chairperson was not given the job. The agriculture sector is more or less stalled because nothing happens in as far as these boards are concerned. The entire boards were collapsed into sub-directorates or directorates under AFA and these directorates are still interim. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AFA is interim. All the members of staff are interim. Everybody is interim. Interim people do not make serious decisions and this is a serious matter that needs to be looked into. Therefore, as the Committee on Implementation of legislations takes effect, I seek the support of this House for it to do its work very well. We cannot be having laws that are not implemented. There is a lot of hue and cry in the sector saying that AFA as an institution is not performing. However, it is not AFA as an institution which has failed to perform. It is because 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."
}