Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1267081,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1267081/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 274,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, apologies. I did not know you had given me the Floor. I wish to react to the two statements by Sen. Munyi Mundigi and Sen. Chute. I will start with Sen. Munyi Mundigi Statement. I like the angle that Sen. Munyi Mundigi has pursued. We are asking the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development to furnish this House with details on the plans to ensure flawless distribution of the fertilizer programme. This is one of the signature success stories of this administration. However, because of the many theories that are being peddled by prophets of doom about what this administration has achieved in the last eight months, we have missed an important celebration. When this administration came to office, there was a bill of Kshs8 billion at the Ministry to register farmers and map them out for purposes of distribution of fertilizer. This being a prudent administration, we sat down and used administrative officers, Deputy County Commissioners (DCCs), chiefs and sub chiefs to register farmers. They were used by the previous administration to conduct political activities and performed dismally while at it. Your chief knows the size of your land and what you cultivate. Therefore, when it comes to registration of farmers, they are best placed to draw a map of every farmer in this country. Out of that programme, more than six million farmers have benefited. We spent less than Kshs50 million to carry out this programme; something which the previous administration had budgeted over Kshs8 billion to undertake. What Sen. Munyi Mundigi is asking of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development is a valid concern. After the registration of the six million farmers and an increase of more than 200,000 hectares of land under cultivation on this programme, it is now time to upscale this conversation and ensure that farmers do not have to travel long distances. For example, farmers in Kipkelion West sub county do not have to take a matatu to Kedowa National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) stores to pick one or two bags of fertilizer. Government must find a way of ensuring the last mile exercise of this programme is well drawn out. Either by use of the least structure of the devolved units that is the wards, ensuring that in collaboration with our county governments you find a safe storage for the fertilizers that are due for farmers in a particular ward. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if that becomes difficult because it would be an enormous task. If I think or my own ward of Kabianga where I come from in Kericho County, everybody is a farmer and everyone expects fertilizer. If you say that you place it at any of the centers within that ward, it would mean that you have hundreds of thousands of bags, which would be at risk of theft. We could use the agrovets, because in every town or small center in this country, at least in places where they practice farming, there is an agrovet. Since this is a promise, we made and was in our manifesto – that it is possible to register them and have them"
}