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{
    "id": 1443594,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1443594/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 183,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "homes and livelihoods. They cannot even go to school because they are sometimes blocked in this menace of floods. The interventions that are supposed to be done through policy and Government actions lack in these spaces because, the only people who can talk very strongly for them are their representatives, but that is not enough. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it goes without saying that when you go and visit Busia, you get to see some of the challenges that these communities face. Then, at a personal level, you can connect so that even when you come to pass policies in this House or champion for oversight role in the Cabinet of this country, you speak to issues and problems that have become prohibitive to people’s modes of survival in those communities. When I went to Busia, I saw trucks queuing for a distance of almost 15 kilometers when you leave Bungoma heading to Malaba Border. You then wonder of the time they take to get cleared and the danger posed on the drivers as well as the community around. You then start thinking about adventurous policies that we, as a nation, can think about on simple issues of clearance and forwarding within our borders. I am excited that this Senate is going to learn about the issues that are in Busia when we go and hold our sittings there. We also extend those sittings to visiting some of the crucial challenges and opportunities that people in Busia are facing. This becomes the pretext of, perhaps, thinking about the next county that we will go to. I still pray, I am not advocating, that hopefully, during my time here, we will get a chance in the subsequent years, to perhaps do Senate Mashinani in Migori County. It is a county of immense and amazing potential. It is also one of the counties within Nyanza Region that is extremely cosmopolitan. We have the amazing culture of the people of Kuria who are industrious in their own traditional agricultural space. They work very hard to take care of their animals that inform the prime meat that the people of this country eat yet they have challenges in the slaughter facilities that you cannot even imagine such that they sometimes just transport live animals to Nairobi in trucks. If there was an improvement for them to get some slaughter facilities in Kuria, they can excel. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, you know very well that right now, there is this advocacy around healthy eating. Instead of just eating what we call French Fries, you can also eat Kuria fries because it is in Kuria, where you find the sweetest potatoes in Migori County. However, even as they try to grow these potatoes, there are many limitations with what they can do because there is no proper investment in the value chain. Migori County has figured out one of the facilities for improving potato in that area, but the capacity has not been tapped well to help the people of Kuria. Even within that mode of survival, you still find that the people of Kuria and Narok sometimes tend to have economic conflict. This is because of border issues and cattle rustling, almost akin to what we have seen in places such as Turkana and the North Rift. One day, when you come to Migori County, you will see the beauty of the Somali Community that is doing wonderful business intervention in Migori Town as well as the border areas. We also have the Kikuyu and Nubian communities. If you go all the way up to Muhuru Bay, we have the Luo Abasubas coming all the way from Suna West and going to Nyatike Constituency where the people of Karungu The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}