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"id": 144075,
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is critical for us to plan for drought, because it can be managed. After every five years, it is with us. So, why do we not have strategies or preparedness? We should put up strategic water points, where necessary. We should invest in food, in terms of the National Strategic Grain Reserve. In terms of preparedness, we can easily grow enough hay. Through irrigation or other measures, this can be done. If this is done, the 10 million Kenyans who keep on suffering after every five years, when the drought recurs, will, for sure, have their livelihood secured. The interventions that we are going to undertake are very important. It should not just be a matter of saving livestock lives, but also about securing the livelihoods of pastoralists. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, pastoralists want to live a dignified lifestyle, whereby they are able to support themselves and their families and to live a dignified life like any other Kenyan. This can only be done if the measures that we will undertake will be geared towards saving livelihoods. This can be done by saving the livestock which are the resources for the pastoralists. When the rains come, they are able to pick up from where they left and live without depending on food aid or handouts, year in, year out. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I really want to address the issue of census; it is very important for this nation to consider a situation where pastoralists are, at the moment. Due to the drought, pastoralists have dispersed in large numbers. Some of them are in foreign countries like Ethiopia, Uganda and, Tanzania. Due to this, they will not be enumerated. Realizing the significance of these findings and how they will be used for the national development of Kenya and realizing that this data will also be used when this country is being allocated resources for development, it is so important that this Government considers the situation of pastoralists and consider if possible, postponing this census until the situation normalizes. It is possible to do it in December or even January, once we have the rains. If we go ahead and do the census in the month of August as has been planned, for sure, the pastoralists will not be enumerated. This census will even further marginalize the pastoralists because they will not be able to get their fair share of the national cake, simply because their data will not be available. We cannot fight nature. We have to live by the state of nature as it is. We have to adjust our planning. That can only be done if census is done in December, at a time when pastoralists will be in a position to be counted. I really hope the Government will consider this. If not, this census will go further to marginalize the pastoralists even more than before. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if they have to do the census, then a special stand must be established to see to it that they are counted, wherever they are. As it is, due to lack of roads, even the few pastoralists who are in northern Kenya will not be reached anyway, simply because they are in areas where there are no roads and which the enumerators will not be able to access. I enumerated pastoralists in 1998 when I was in High School and I know we were not able to reach 30 per cent of the population, simply because the days were very few and we were walking from place to place. With those few remarks, I support the Motion."
}