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{
    "id": 1501862,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1501862/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 64,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "That is a journey that Kenya must travel. It is not easy because much as these figures are factual, they are there and we can confirm that inflation has dropped from 9.6 to 2.7 per cent; the true hallmark and the proper measure of all this will be the day an ordinary citizen breathes a sigh of relief and says I can feel that the burden is now lighter. Unfortunately, the President concedes in his speech that he knows that that is not the case, much as he is doing something about it. There are many topics that I can speak to and have mentioned. I want to be a good example that, in fact, after the seconding of this Motion by the Senate Majority Whip--- I see Sen. Oketch Gicheru would like to do this, but there will be time in the future for him. I promise you next year you will do it. I will allow you to move the Motion next year, Senator. I want to speak on the topic of agriculture. I am a representative of farmers and I must appreciate what has been done in this particular space. The President pointed out something, which any of us that come, especially from the western side of the country, know of the rise of the sugar subsector once again. You will recall that in the last seven years, there have been investigations after investigations on importation of sugar. The country has sometimes been forced to partake of substandard sugar because people who were being granted importation licenses were fetching sugar from across the world, some of which is not even fit for human consumption. For the very first time, we have enabled our farmers to keep our factories busy and be self-sufficient in terms of the demand for us as a country. For a long time, I have not seen people fight for those permits to do importation. That is very good progress. I must appreciate and urge that more be done, even in this sector. It is possible for us to have a surplus and feed the other Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) countries. This is to enable our farmers in the sugarcane growing areas through this promise of working to ensure that we provide the needed input to put more than 500,000 acres of land into active use. Actually, the 500,000 acres have already been brought, but there is a need to do more so that we can sustain that particular sector. In the report on the progress of the coffee subsector reported in that particular part of the speech, we have more than 48,000 metric tonnes increase from what was reported in the previous year thus making an earning of an extra Kshs25 billion to the citizens. The same is reported of what is happening in the dairy subsector. The last topic that I wish to speak to is on this issue of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) under this programme known as the Taifa Care where citizens are now eligible for all services upon registration. I like what the Ministry of Health is presently doing. Each week they release a county-by-county statistic of how many people have registered under Taifa Care. I think they do it every Tuesday or Wednesday. I saw it in my county last week. They were at 19 per cent. I urge Senators to take in interest in their counties because there were counties that were still as low as four or five per cent. I believe it is your burden as a leader. At the end of the day, that is without contestation. You can argue about so many other things. For instance, this should have been done better or the other. However, from the 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."
}