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{
    "id": 1097158,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1097158/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 671,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kibwezi West, Independent",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Patrick Musimba",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1804,
        "legal_name": "Patrick Mweu Musimba",
        "slug": "patrick-mweu-musimba"
    },
    "content": "A closer look of the Bill reveals three major things that come out of it. The Leader of the Majority Party, who is the Mover of the Bill, needs to really look at these things. The wording is important. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, you are a lawyer. You understand this: they say that “the Authority will be charged with looking at all levels of irrigation” and then somewhere in the small print, I think in sub-section (j), they say “the Authority will be in charge of licensing”. In a different charter they speak about “the Authority will be the one charged with all initiatives of water harvesting”. It will control water harvesting initiatives and the manner in which it will be done and the instrumentation. We are walking closely towards having the bureaucracy that is a big fear to people who are running personal community initiatives. That is where they want to have a tank which is to store, maybe, two or three million litres of water to distribute in their locality and we are talking about them having to seek permission to do so. We will be lost in this sort of bureaucracy. The third aspect within the Bill, which caught my eye, is that no one can proceed with irrigation unless they get a licence as soon as this Bill has been ratified into law. These are very slippery waters. It means we will go on a standstill by saying we cannot undertake or deal with people on the ground in provision of food or initiatives of capturing water like in our rice growing areas and places which are confronted with dykes and water flooding. They will never be able to put mitigating measures in place unless an Authority, which is possibly being domiciled in Nairobi, goes to act in places like Budalangi, Nyatike and Nyando. This will be an area of concern. So, this is to direct or request the Leader of the Majority Party to look at these provisions with a view to removing them from the Bill. The fourth aspect which I want to bring to the attention of the House is that irrigation goes hand-in-hand with soil improvement. We have to see how to improve soils and soil qualities around the country. We speak about siltation or silt being carried by our rivers to the Indian Ocean. This is very rich soil but we do not talk about what is happening upstream in terms of loss of top soils. How do we get the Authority to also be charged with looking at the quality of soils around the country and looking at mitigation measures? They talk in the Bill about them being able to offer, on a commercial basis, the technical expertise to help people with coming up with irrigation designs but this is one salient aspect because it is a causal effect of irrigation. It is important that soil improvement, as an impact of irrigation, is also captured in the Bill as one of the Authority’s mandates. All in all, this is an idea whose time has come. We, as Parliament, should take the lead in ensuring that we ring-fence the funds. Hon. Sankok spoke about Kshs50 billion. I think we can enhance it because of time and value for money from when this Bill is proposed to that date. Even on those PPRs, how can we manufacture them here locally? How can we get industry into it? If we are already doing automobiles and the Big Four Agenda, why can we not talk about these end components being done from here? With those remarks, I support."
}