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{
    "id": 146043,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/146043/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 317,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on agriculture, the Government promised, last year, that it would allocate 8 per cent of the total Budget to agriculture. I do not see this in the Budget. We still need to support agriculture. We need to support certain institutions like the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC). More funds should be given to the AFC for onward lending to farmers. We do not have adequate agricultural credit for farmers. The cost of production has gone up. The cost of inputs and fuel has gone up. So, farmers want to borrow more to meet the cost of inputs. They cannot fund themselves. They have to look for somewhere to borrow some funds, and the only body that supports agriculture is the AFC. Therefore, the AFC should be supported by allocating it more funds for onward lending to farmers. On the health sector, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance has allocated money to the constituencies for employment of nurses and other medical staff. That is good because, at the moment, we have many health centres and dispensaries, some of which have been closed down because they have no staff. In my constituency, I have about six dispensaries. They are very old. They were not built recently. They get their allocation of drugs. They have drug kits, but there are no personnel. We have been asking the Ministry to employ, but they say that they have not been given enough budgetary allocation to enable them employ enough staff. So, I hope that they are going to implement these proposals to allow constituencies to employ enough nurses or clinical officers to man these institutions. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as far as education is concerned, I was really happy to note that the Minister has allocated money for construction of modern schools. A few years ago, the Ministry of Education proposed the construction of two modern schools in every district – one for girls and one for boys – but this concept was not funded. It was just a proposal that was never supported in terms of funds. So, I really congratulate the Minister for going further to allocate funds for the development of two centres of excellence in every constituency, this time round, so that this idea becomes a reality. I think it is going to be implemented. As far as the issue of levying instant fines for minor traffic offences is concerned, I think we need to improve on this proposal, because there is a lot of corruption that is perpetrated by traffic police officers. They fine people in the form of corruption. For every matatu, they take a certain amount of money daily, irrespective of whether your vehicle is mechanically sound or not. If we do not improve on this proposal, they will be telling motorists: “You either pay me Kshs200 or pay the Government Kshs1,000.” So, we need to improve on this idea, so that these people are sent to court. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}