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{
    "id": 1185060,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1185060/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 669,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatinga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13582,
        "legal_name": "Wahome Wamatinga",
        "slug": "wahome-wamatinga"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker Sir, I also rise to support this Motion. We know that every country is supposed to have strategic food reserves. These are supposed to meet the needs of its population whenever unforeseen circumstances such the ones witnessed in the country for a couple of months. However, we know that there was an oversight on the side of the national Government. As much as agriculture is a devolved function, the responsibility of maintaining strategic grain reserves is vested in the national Government. This was overlooked. Agriculture is a devolved function. We said, as a Senate, that we should take the responsibility of unbundling the functions that have been devolved and make sure that they go to the county government. We must also ensure that county governments come up with a strategic plan on how they will maintain their strategic reserves. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it is an open secret that the problem we face in this country is actually brought by mismanagement of the logistics to preserve the post- harvest food whenever we enjoy a bumper harvest. If you walk into Nyandarua County and part of Nyeri County today, a 110- kilogram (kg) sack of carrots is being sold at a throw away price. As a Government, we have failed to embrace value addition and to extend the lives of the food stuff that we harvest. If we work on technology that is currently largely available in the world, we will preserve some of the food that go to waste after harvest. Countries like Holland harvest tomatoes and preserve them. Those tomatoes are used three years later. If we embrace that kind of technology, we will not have some parts of the country going hungry. The rains have set in and we expect to have a bumper harvest of milk in the next couple of months. We will see a lot of it going to waste because the country has not prepared itself to deal with situations where we have a lot and too little. Counties like Uasin Gishu are now harvesting maize but we have embarked on importation of the same. We will see a situation where the farmers in Rift Valley are not able to sell their surplus because the Government has already licensed importation of maize and other dried grains. Therefore, we, as a Senate, have a duty to get back to the county governments, as proposed by Sen. Thang’wa, and ask the County Executive Committee Members (CECMs) of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries to explain to us what they are doing. We must also ask ourselves and the national Government of the policy frameworks that"
}