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{
    "id": 142362,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/142362/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 340,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": ", Jasper Wendo is quoted as stating:- “When the madness of an entire nation disturbs a solitary mind, it is not enough to say the man is mad”. We are not mad. Members of Parliament from pastoralist areas are not mad men and women. We are here to bring to the attention of the nation that for far too long, the issues of development in this country are purely political with a lot of political bias. This has led to continuous marginalization and neglect of a people. These are people who provide the economy of this country with 50 per cent of livestock products. These are the people who protect the international integrity of our borders. These are people whose political muscles are small and limited by the vagaries of nature and diseases. Just this morning, I said that there is polio outbreak in northern Kenya. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) standards, one case is an outbreak. Two cases is a double outbreak. 16 cases is a national tragedy. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is what we want to represent here. I am not just making sentimental statements. I am making statements on the basis of a sustained policy framework that for a long time, since colonial time, has worked against and negated the interests of the people of this country. In 1903, the then Governor-General of the colonial Kenya, Sir, Elliot Charles, in a preface to a book on the Maasai stated like this:- “Let us do what we can do for the Maasais but not for long because in a hundred years, the Maasais will become Kikuyus”. Obviously, 2003 was 100 years later and the Maasais are still with us. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the White Paper came in 1923 with the same biases. The Swynnerton Plan of 1954 had the same biases. As if what the colonialists revisited on the Republic was not enough, in 1965 we came with our own Sessional Paper by the Late Tom Mboya. That was the genesis, accumulation and affirmation of neglect of our people. It stated:- “The planning of resources in the Republic will go to high potential areas”. The definition of potential area is relative. Twenty per cent of the country that receives high precipitation is not adequate to be considered potential. The potential areas had things like Tea Research Foundation, coffee and pyrethrum boards. What did we have for northern Kenya? Even the colonialist had the Livestock Marketing Department (LMD) in northern Kenya. What did the new Government do? It removed all that. Beef research stations starting with Lanet, were all converted to dairy research stations because we did not have Friesian cows. These are things I know. I am an authority on such matters. I did a research on policy, its implications and biases in terms of productivity in the nation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the State has lived in a state of denial for a long time. They deny that there is drought and there are no victims of famine. The job of a local chief"
}