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{
    "id": 1202072,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1202072/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 326,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Abass",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13587,
        "legal_name": "Abass Sheikh Mohamed",
        "slug": "abass-sheikh"
    },
    "content": "He also talked about scaling up agriculture. Farmers in other parts of the world like America and Europe always get subsidies. In Kenya, the farmers are left to struggle on their own to produce food. The President said that the Government will subsidise food production at the production level and not the consumer level. We have become consumers in this country instead of producers. We import everything, including oranges from Tanzania and sugar from Uganda. We have land and resources in this country. Kenyans are well educated and we have researchers and scientists, but I do not know what is happening. We need to make changes and look at how we can be self-sufficient in food production. We cannot only subsidise fertilizers. It is unfortunate that we lose about 100,000 to 200,000 livestock. We see carcass on international and Kenyan television stations, yet no intervention is made in time. We need to have a timely intervention for that kind of business. I should laud the President for scaling up agriculture. However, scaling up agriculture should not only mean crop agriculture. We also need to scale up fishing and livestock farming. We all know that 70 per cent of this country is in the marginalised areas, which have low production capacity. Nevertheless, we can grow foods like cassava and sorghum in those regions. There are many options, but the unfortunate thing is that we are only giving exemptions to things like maize, tea and coffee, which are produced in a small area in this country. We need to do better by thinking outside the box. I also want to applaud the President for reducing the credit facility by 40 per cent. Today, most of the small-scale farmers and the small and medium entrepreneurs are able to access credit. That was good timing. The ‘Hustlers’ Fund is a good idea and we will appreciate if the fund is utilised appropriately. We have the Women Fund and Youth Fund, which have not had any huge impact in the past because of looting. I hope that measures will be put in place to ensure that this money is safeguarded and that it goes to the right people. Finally, the low cost of housing is a good suggestion as most Kenyans live in shanties that are not habitable. The low cost housing should not only cover Nairobi and other big towns. We need it to go to Wajir because we also want to change the other parts of the country. Those people should also have decent housing. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}