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{
    "id": 1481234,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1481234/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 230,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 33,
        "legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
        "slug": "margaret-kamar"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we have a modern law that has come on agriculture. I hope as a House, we will be able to adopt and cause our own laws to be changed. We are happy that Esther Passaris, a member of the PAP is also a member of the Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, Aquaculture and Rural Development. She will table the modern law and transmit it to this House. Once it comes to this House, we will use it to amend the law. We know agriculture is predominantly devolved and this is the House that should make decisions. Therefore, many other laws are coming. We are coming up with laws to do with trade. I sit in the Committee on Trade, Industrialization and Tourism. We are currently working on the issue of the free trade area and pushing hard to make sure that this continent becomes open. We know that within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, it is clear that when we have about eight members having ratified, they are allowed to proceed. We will urge the East African Community (EAC) to proceed with that. We know that we currently have a customs union between the East African countries. As we work on that, one of the objectives of the African Union (AU) is to ensure that the regional economic blocks like the East African Community (EAC) can integrate further and be the role models when it comes to integration. This is what we will do to push for ourselves as the East African region using the model that has been successful in allowing trade between the states of the East African Community. Then we can spread out because the East African region under the AU has more countries than what the East African Community has. We have Ethiopia, Djibouti, Madagascar island and Seychelles Island and we need to expand that integration to allow free movement. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we are proud as Kenya that the head of state made a pronouncement that Africans and anybody from the continent of Africa can get into Kenya without a visa - If any country would do their processing even at the airport. This is what we are looking for under the AU and it is what PAP is pushing for. We are pushing for free movement of persons and goods so that we can trade among ourselves. We open the airspace because unless we open the airspace, it becomes extremely expensive for an African to move within the continent. One of the things that we are looking at right now to enable free trade is the infrastructure. Infrastructure requires that we have railway connectivity between countries in the continent. We want to have road networks between the countries. As a delegation, we are very happy with the candidature of the Rt. Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga. The main reason is that he was in charge of the African infrastructure before. The priorities that he had put in place are now at the committee stage. We need to have road and railway networks, so that we can have a railway line that starts from Cape Town to Cairo. Then we have rails from Nairobi to the West, to Senegal. These are some of the things that were emphasized when our candidate, Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga, was in charge of infrastructure. It is our prayer as a House that he will win that position so that he moves things ahead. Finally, we are very grateful as a delegation that we have been allowed to take up this great responsibility. We believe that with the leadership of Sen. Mungatana, we will even participate more and give more reports in this House so that the it can move with us. 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."
}