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{
"id": 1490500,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1490500/?format=api",
"text_counter": 313,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
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"speaker": null,
"content": "can give vouchers to poor people who cannot pay for this water. When they get these vouchers, they can then redeem these vouchers in terms of litres of water. However, the State will not say that it will buy trucks and incur all those costs, the way they did with the fertilizer and cooking oil. However well-intentioned, it will become messy. We have areas we can borrow from. I have been doing some desktop research on India, on how they do that. They have a big subsidy programme. They do their subsidies through first of all, mapping the recipients, then using technology, they are able to then target these people with vouchers. So that, if there was a subsidy for fertilizer, there was no need for government to buy the fertilizer and incur costs of transport, warehousing, and all the efficiencies. The Government people are not shopkeepers, they do not run shops. It would have been done very well whereby, they would have mapped out the farmers, known the needs of each farmer, and then issued out vouchers where a farmer can go into an ordinary store and with a voucher, the way people do at Christmas when they are given vouchers by their employers, walk into a supermarket or an agro-vet, and give their voucher and redeem it against fertilizer. I would pray that we consider that. If we are going to allow the private sector to play a primary role in water distribution, then we must come up with a way where the Government does not hide behind that. The Government's duty must be able to penetrate that through a voucher system where we can subsidize the poor and the marginalized, who the Constitution recognizes in very many ways and protects. Above all, Madam Temporary Speaker, never should we ever allow any market forces to control our natural resources or to own water. Nobody should own water. They can own the distribution, but owning the water must remain with the State, and the State must control how that water is used. Ultimately, I reiterate that the poor and the marginalized, who are the most disadvantaged, must be protected through clear and elaborate policy and legal frameworks that ensure they do not become sacrificial lambs on the altar of profit- making. Those who come to invest in these waterways as bulk distributors want to grow their capital. However, they should not grow their capital on the graves of Kenyans. They should grow their capital in a manner that makes Kenyans thrive. So, there is a big role on the Government to invent, think, and come up with a structure that can allow the market to play a role, allow people to grow their profits, and protect the rights of the marginalized and the vulnerable, including people in many villages in this country who are poor, to access this vital commodity to improve their lives and serve. Madam Temporary Speaker, with those remarks, I support and congratulate the bipartisanism that has come up and has been expressed here, which the Senate Majority Leader has recognized in eloquent poetry, which I will spoil if I try to imitate him in my broken prose. I thank you, may God bless us all."
}