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{
    "id": 1493464,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1493464/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 305,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Millie Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for acknowledging that I come from Suba North. The issues that Hon. Catherine Omanyo has raised affect my constituency very much, mainly because it borders Tanzania and Uganda at Remba, Ringiti and Mfangano Islands. The issue of harassment of fishermen is very common. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I know that even you are somehow affected. We have even raised this issue with His Excellency the President, who indicated that they will undertake diplomatic action to ensure it does not re-occur. Maybe Hon. Omanyo did not indicate this, but there are times that our fishermen are forced to eat raw fish when they are taken or arrested in the waters. Therefore, I would only encourage them that there was a time when the Government took action. There was a Mr Macharia, who was a commissioner in Homa Bay County. If my memory serves me right, he was transferred to Nakuru County. He did an excellent job. He involved all leaders at that level, including Members of Parliament, Governors and the Ugandan counterparts. This went down very much. We even had good numbers of Ugandan counterparts. I am just encouraging the Hon. Member since I am in the Departmental Committee on Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations, and I will raise it there. While we are still waiting for that so that our fishermen are not harassed, we could go back to that system. As Hon. Members, we are willing to have those quarterly meetings because it reduces the level of harassment, killings, jailings and hefty fines. When one boat is confiscated, they are fined up to Ksh100,000. Sometimes, they call you as their Member of Parliament but you cannot pay for ten boats which is Ksh1 million. How can you deal with such things? Therefore, Hon. Temporary Speaker, the Hon. Member could pick that up so that even as we raise it in the Committee, those will be short-time measures to deal with those concerns. Thank you."
}