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{
"id": 1097120,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1097120/?format=api",
"text_counter": 633,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Wajir North, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Ibrahim Ahmed",
"speaker": {
"id": 13505,
"legal_name": "Ahmed Abdisalan Ibrahim",
"slug": "ahmed-abdisalan-ibrahim"
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"content": "That said, I think we need to change our way of doing things. In terms of budget-making, we must make sure that the right budget is allocated to this sector such that we improve the food security in the arid and semi-arid parts of this country. Secondly, we must make sure that there is multi-agency or multi-sectoral approach in how we carry out this thing. You will find that besides the Government, there are different actors on the ground supporting these kinds of activities. However, there are cases of duplication of resources in some areas. You may go to a centre and find three or four pans yet there are areas where, say, schools were closed down as a result of lack of water. You may find that the malnutrition level in a small village is extremely high because of lack of water. Most villages do not have water storage facilities that can help harvest rain water during the rainy season. So, there is a lot of duplication of resources as well as waste of resources because there is no multi-agency and multi-sectoral coordination of the small resources that we have. I think we need to improve this if at all we have to realise improvement of food insecurity in this country. Let me congratulate the Kenya Red Cross Society because they have carried out a number of food security projects, of course, some of them integrated both with water and sanitation components, food security et cetera . That way, they have supported people in arid and semi-arid counties. I think this House should have gone a notch higher to allocate some money in the Budget for the Kenya Red Cross Society. Indeed, most of the countries in the world allocate resources to their Red Cross societies. How I wish we could do the same. Given the much I have known about Red Cross, I have no doubt that in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, they are far much ahead. That notwithstanding, I think, as a country, once again we need to get out of this relief dependency syndrome and support sustainable water projects that will improve food security, especially in the northern part of Kenya. It is high time we came up with multi-agency and multi- sectoral coordination organs that can bring the county governments, the national Government and other non-State actors to pool resources together. We can have, say, two or three projects in every constituency that are purposely meant for improving food security as well as minimising the malnutrition level that is extremely high. I am sure if we change our ways and do things right, that is, from the making of the Budget, issues of coordination, and networking between the different actors giving special priority to issues of food security, then we will do well. We also have problems in terms of priority ranking of our needs. We say food security and nutrition is one of the Big Four Agenda items yet nothing tangible has been done as at now. I think there are projects that the Government has initiated in terms of food security. In my constituency, I have a dam called Bute that was initiated about four years ago. Unfortunately, the project has not kicked off yet because of so many bureaucracies. As we speak, it is at the final stage; the Cabinet approval stage. Thereafter, the project was to kick off. I think the Government ministries and departments that are in charge of these issues should move a bit faster so that we can reduce these bureaucracies that are delaying service delivery and by extension, causing unnecessary pain to the population in various parts of this country. It is high time projects of high value that would improve the lives and livelihood of vulnerable populations, especially in the northern part of Kenya, were given special consideration."
}