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{
    "id": 1049130,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1049130/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 150,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Emurua Dikirr, KANU",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kipyegon Ng’eno",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1453,
        "legal_name": "Johana Ngeno Kipyegon",
        "slug": "johana-ngeno-kipyegon"
    },
    "content": "From the first instance, I support. I want to give my input especially on matters to do with the agricultural crops, which are used as part of earnings and, at the same time, as food in most of the areas that we come from. Almost 80 per cent of our country is agricultural. From time immemorial, our country has been relying mostly on agriculture. After independence and even before independence, you will realise that the major issue that we had with the colonial government was the matter to do with land. The issue of land arose because, majorly, most of our people were agriculturalists and their way of living was through agriculture. The reason why most of our people fought for independence and even in post-independence, and we have had issues with communities, is because of land. The reason why they fight for land is so that they can use the land for agricultural and other domestic uses. Hon. Deputy Speaker, it is unfortunate that some way back, we abandoned the income earners for our country. Generally - and as we know even up to now - the greatest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) earner for our country is still agriculture. Although we have tourism and a few others, we still rely on agriculture, both for domestic use and as a foreign exchange earner. Our country lost its immediate agenda on agriculture because we thought we could rush to other matters like industrialisation, communication and all that. We did that without a plan. We should have first made sure that agriculture is stabilized in our country because it is through it that we can now move to the next level of development. We have had several agenda on matters of crops. For instance, you remember the Ministry plus the Kenyan Government opted to practise irrigation in areas in the coastal region and some parts of southern Kenya. Those plans never went through because instead of investing in irrigation and producing crops that do well in our country, we decided to convert that investment into a corruption undertaking. I support my brother Mheshimiwa Tandaza for this amendment Bill. Peas are another crop which does well in parts of the country, especially semi-arid and arid areas. It can also do well in other parts of the country. Other than the coastal region, it can also do well in some parts of the northern region and also in Narok where I come from. On a serious note, the Government should go back to its original days when it used to know that agriculture was the best earner in our country. It should invest a lot of money in agriculture. We devolved agriculture, but when we look at how the county governments have dealt with the agricultural sector, we realise that they have not established a serious agenda. It is still the national Government which can set serious policies for our county governments. If the agricultural sector remained part of the national Government, we could deal with very serious issues. The Rift Valley has been the bread basket of our country, in terms of food security and other economic sectors. Currently, sectors which we used to rely on such as tea, maize and pyrethrum – which is grown in areas where most of us come from such as Molo – have died. Even as we support this Bill, it is high time that we sat down as a country, and especially as the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock to relook at all those agricultural crops which used to earn our country a lot of money. Look at the sugarcane sector, especially in the Western and Nyanza regions. You cannot find sugar on the shelves in shops. This is despite the fact that 80 per cent of Kenyans use sugar. You are left to wonder why there is no sugar on the shelves. The crop itself does not earn anything for the people who plant it. It is time we sat down as a country and looked at those areas that were earning this country foreign exchange and putting money in the pockets of our population. It is time we sat down as a country and created an agenda that deals with agriculture that will help to revert the earnings that we used to get from agriculture and make our country move forward. We need to relook at many other crops that we have. If we made miraa and macadamia 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."
}