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{
    "id": 1525576,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1525576/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 242,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 407,
        "legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
        "slug": "ledama-olekina"
    },
    "content": "There is absolutely no reason as to why I should be buying unga wa ugali from Mombasa yet I grow maize in Narok. How many people are in Narok? We have over 1.4 million people. That economy should sustain itself. I am glad that the distinguished Senator for Bungoma is listening. Sometimes it behoves us to think how to devolve all the services. For example, we can take seed inspectorate services to Bungoma, Narok or Bomet counties, so that immediately we realise there is a disease affecting farmers, action is taken locally. If you go the KEPHIS, before they send somebody to the ground, you might be asked to fuel their vehicle. That does not just happen in the crops, but also in the livestock sector. Madam Temporary Speaker, did you know that for them to test pesticides and acaracides for spraying cows, they do all the testing in Trans Mara? If you have a cow in Bungoma County that has tick borne disease, if a new acaracide has been brought to help solve that problem, unless the testing is done in Kilgoris, there is no way you can use it. We need to divorce ourselves from the old mentality, control and bureaucracy and open the field. As I conclude, I hope that the Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries will support my Bill once it is tabled because it goes into the call of this Petition, so that at least this Parliament can be remembered as having solved the problem of that maize disease. Finally, Madam Temporary Speaker, it is time that KEPHIS mopped up all the maize seeds causing that disease. There is no way you can have one seed for 12 years and that disease spreads every year. There is something wrong with it, unless somebody is protecting it. The KSC and all other companies that sell seed must look at that seed. As far as I am concerned, many seeds come from Kitale. However, those diseases are not in Kitale. I am wondering what is going on. Is it because of the pesticides we use that are causing those diseases because maize seeds are grown in Kitale? They are certified that good. However, once they are planted in Narok or Bomet, they have diseases. Is it the pesticides? Is it that we have really corrupted our soils to a point where any crop you put in it just dies? Those are the questions that we must ask ourselves. Madam Temporary Speaker, I fully support this report. I hope that the Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, even though we do not have an implementation committee, will follow through to make sure that all your recommendations, which are sound, are implemented."
}