Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 120339,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/120339/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 272,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mureithi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 89,
        "legal_name": "Erastus Kihara Mureithi",
        "slug": "erastus-mureithi"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, having recognized that I have done a lot of exercises this morning, I would like to thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this wonderful Bill. It is a good Bill by the Member of Parliament for Mathira, because access to food commodities is a basic human right, which is enshrined in the constitution. In fact, by allowing our Kenyans to sometimes die, because they do not have food, then we are violating that basic human right; no country will allow its citizenry to die because they lack food. Therefore, I support this Bill, knowing very well that this country imports a lot of food. By importing this food, we are creating employment in foreign lands while impoverishing our own people. I do not see why we pay billions of shillings for food and when it reaches here, we distribute it free of charge to our own people. By doing that, we are essentially creating a dependence syndrome. Our people will not have any more incentive to go and farm, because we import food for them. That importation of food has gone to create employment in foreign lands, while here, we give it out on a continuous basis to our people. These days, you find people saying: “The Government brought us maize but did not bring us rice and oil.” This shows that we have reached a point where our people are depending so much on relief food. Recently, they said: “We have been given maize to plant but where is the fertilizer?”, yet we are importing all these food commodities into our own country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one classic example we should look at is the American states. They have refused to remove the subsidy on cotton, which is grown there. This subject has been discussed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), but they have said they will continue subsidising their cotton. When you are in America, you can buy a pair of jean trousers for one Dollar. Here, in this country, unless you buy mitumba, you cannot get good clothes, because our cotton is not subsidised. We are importing yarn, and you will find that other developed countries have the mechanism for subsidizing their own farming. For instance, they subsidise . When you produce, the government gives you a certain stipend to make sure that when you are producing, you are doing so at a lower cost. When you are marketing, they also subsidise that marketing; so, that the developing countries, which include Kenya, will always continue to depend on them, thinking that, that is charity, yet it is not. We are only enriching other countries and making our country poorer. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to say that this is a very good Bill, because it is not introducing price control mechanisms, which were there in the 1980s and 1990s. We are saying that we select, as the Chair says, some items from the basket of commodities that make our people survive. If you go to India, they subsidise production of items for the poor people, so that they are able to go and buy commodities that they can afford. Recently, we introduced two prices of unga or maize flour. One packet of maize meal was going for Kshs56 and the other at Kshs76 for the poor and rich, respectively. What happened to those two sets of prices? Nobody knows. So, that was a"
}