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{
    "id": 1097144,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1097144/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 657,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kinangop, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Zachary Thuku",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13380,
        "legal_name": "Zachary Kwenya Thuku",
        "slug": "zachary-kwenya-thuku"
    },
    "content": "This is an Authority that touches where it matters: The hearts of people. If well-managed, we are going to have more than we can handle. In fact, we need to take this a notch higher so that we allow the National Irrigation Authority to prepare places where we can store food. It is happening today in my constituency. Potato farmers suffer. They do not have a market for potatoes because there is an oversupply of potatoes. The harvest is bounty. If we had a way of storing potatoes, we could wait for the market to normalise and have the same produce sold so that farmers can get value for their work. The NIA should not just think of how we are going to increase food productivity but also how we will store the same for use when we do not have adequate supply. I thank the NIA because they have a project in my constituency. For the first time, we have an irrigation project called Upper Gitwe Irrigation Scheme. I happen to have visited it yesterday. I was impressed with the amount of work that has already been done but bureaucracy, and especially decision-making, is slowing down its implementation. We would want to have an efficient system where decision makers are fully aware that whatever project is being implemented is for purposes of improving the livelihoods of our citizens. I also have another project called Mutonyora C Irrigation Scheme that has stalled. There is a dam that was constructed a long time ago by our colonial fathers. I am ashamed to say that our colonial fathers should have stayed around for quite some time. Maybe, we would have moved faster than we are moving. How come the dams have been left for cattle grazing? We take our cattle there to drink water yet the vision and purpose of the dam was that they would be used for irrigation to make sure that we do not suffer the shame of hunger. It is high time we woke up and lived the dream of our founding fathers. Tupambane na njaa na tupambane na ujinga, as Mzee Kenyatta said . This is the time. If we do not do so now, a time will come when it will be too late."
}