Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 114154,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/114154/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 200,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Chepkitony",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13,
        "legal_name": "Lucas Kipkosgei Chepkitony",
        "slug": "lucas-chepkitony"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to the Motion on the Presidential Address which I support. I would like to commend the President for the excellent Address he made in this House. He spelt out Government policy, the Bills and Government programmes ahead of us. He touched on the Draft Constitution which he asked all of us to support so that we can get a new Constitution after waiting for two decades. I urge my colleagues that we support the Draft Constitution when it is brought before the House. I think the Draft Constitution which has been tabled in this House is so far the best we have ever seen. I hope all of us shall support it and if there has to be any change, then we should change the necessary sections. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to talk about the farmers. The President mentioned the New Kenya Corporative Creameries New (KCC). He requested the Ministry of Co-operative Development and Marketing, the Ministry of Livestock Development and the Ministry of State for Special Programmes to incorporate milk powder as a national food reserve. I support this because while farmers are trying to improve their income having come out of drought, the New KCC is unable to take all the milk that is being produced. This is very sad and a big loss to the farmers. I commend the President for directing that milk powder be made part of the national food reserve. This should be done immediately. I hope the Ministry concerned and the Treasury will provide funds to purchase powder milk from the New KCC. I also hope that the New KCC will get the necessary support to implement these measures. The New KCC should be supported to acquire the necessary machinery within their plants to dry the excess milk and sell it to the strategic food reserve. This is because it is one thing saying and another implementing it. I hope that the Ministries and the New KCC will implement this directive since it came from the President. We had a very severe drought last year which really affected the whole country. It affected farmers and those who are preparing to plant do not have enough financial resources to do so. The rains appear to have started a bit early but farmers have not prepared their fields. This is because most of them do not have the resources to enable them do this. They require support in the form of credit. They need funds to enable them to prepare land and purchase inputs such as fertilizer, planting seeds and other essentials. I hope the Ministry concerned will support the farmers through the provision of credit through the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC). This Corporation has supported farmers but it does not have sufficient funds. I urge the Treasury and the Ministry concerned to ensure that the AFC is allocated funds to support farmers. Many farmers have loans which they were unable to pay last year because they did not harvest anything. Many areas had 100 per cent crop failure. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to talk about the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) which has not been able to buy maize from farmers. Leave alone the maize in areas like Bura which was planted through the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP). The Government gave out money to revive the irrigation scheme, the farmers have harvested the maize and it is reported that the NCPB cannot buy the maize because it does not have money. There is also a bumper harvest in Ukambani in Eastern Province. The NCPB should take this opportunity to purchase the surplus maize to attain the required grain reserve. I fail to understand why when it comes to importing food, the Government is ready to look for money to import it but when it comes to buying food from the farmers, it is difficult to allocate the NCPB money to buy the food. I urge the Government to look into this issue because this is one way of alleviating poverty and empowering the farmers. If the NCPB is empowered to buy surplus maize from the farmers, it will create employment and this will stimulate the economy. All of us know that agriculture is still the mainstay of our economy. The drought also affected the power generation, it affected the dams, there was not enough water and there was shortage of power generated from the hydro power stations, which made power generation very expensive. I hope the Government is going to plan to diversify, so that we do not over-rely on hydro power stations. Now, Kenya is selling power very expensively and many industries are suffering from the high cost of electricity. In fact, many have been contemplating moving their factories to other countries if the Government cannot assist to bring down the cost of power. The practice of generating power using diesel is very expensive and this cost is passed to the consumers and it is not sustainable."
}