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{
    "id": 1425754,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1425754/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 108,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Mithika Linturi",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock Development",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 69,
        "legal_name": "Franklin Mithika Linturi",
        "slug": "franklin-linturi"
    },
    "content": "it is, it will be sorted. That is the story. I am sure you and the people of Murang’a will be happy. We are trying to resolve the problems of our people. Concerning what we intend to do to support our young farmers that have lost their livelihoods through these floods, the flooding is an act of God. We need to get prepared better in the future to deal with them. Just like I mentioned, it is not possible as at now to establish the losses we have, so far, incurred because the rains are not yet over. However, we have a programme on crop insurance within the Ministry, and we have probably been trying to argue some of the issues to ensure that our farmers are properly taken care of, just like we have done in livestock, when they die through drought and there is compensation. We endeavour to check within the scope of our crop insurance what we can make out of whatever has happened by sitting down with our insurers and discussing with them after the establishment of the level of loss. Right now, we are not able to say with a lot of authority how much we have lost. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I understand what it means to encourage young people to get to their farms to start producing food for this country, and then this happens. It can be very frustrating and demoralizing. This is a huge setback. When you look at the people that have been practicing agriculture, they are above 60 years. We have an ambitious programme run by one of my technical persons here to bring more young people into agriculture. I understand and feel you. That it becomes very painful when we have placed people and these floods destroy what they have done. Let us see how we can draw it, but I am sure we shall be able to come up with a solution. Sen. Wamatinga, you asked whether we could work closely with the county governments to ensure that the geospatial surveys are conducted, and money is saved so that we can work out this issue together. Let me refer you to Schedule 4 of the Constitution specifically on the function of the county governments on crop husbandry. The Ministry is joined at the hip to the county governments. We cannot do anything without working together. We have worked closely with them even with the many projects we are running including the registration through the Kenya Integrated Agriculture Management Information System (KIAMIS) and the Agri-Preneurs Extension Model, which we will be launching on Madaraka Day to support our county governments and farmers to realise our greater agenda, which cannot be achieved without us working together. Once we have gotten the approval by persuading Cabinet on this matter, I assure you that we shall work very closely and see what role each of the levels of government shall take on because we are serving the same people. The Ministry’s operating word has been we either swim together or drown. This should also apply to the national Government, the Ministry and the Governors because we all require each other. We shall see what role each of us shall play so that this is properly achieved. I thank you."
}