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{
    "id": 1554973,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1554973/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 437,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kinangop, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kwenya Thuku",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13380,
        "legal_name": "Zachary Kwenya Thuku",
        "slug": "zachary-kwenya-thuku"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for being magnanimous. I know the mood of the House is that the Mover be called upon to reply. I wish to add my voice to the nomination of the Principal Secretary, State Department for Trade. Looking at her credentials, I agree she has every capability to bring about change and transformation in this very important Ministry. Having said that, this is one of those ministries that has been looked down upon. While it may not be ranked as one of the most prestigious ministries, it should be. For this country to transform in terms of industrialisation and taking advantage of every opportunity we have in terms of trade, then we must have a robust and a very able Principal Secretary as the Accounting Officer, along with the other staff at the Ministry. It is a Ministry that we need to elevate to a level whereby they can recognise the opportunities within our country and outside. I think that is where the gap lies. The opportunities in Kenya are enormous. I will give an example of a neglected industry: the dairy industry. We often think the produce we have is sufficient for the Republic, but that is not the case. I happened to have visited Qatar, a desert country as we all know, but in terms of the dairy industry, they have one mega dairy farm with a population of about 400,000 dairy cattle. Their daily production is not less than 25,000 litres. That is the capacity that is within. They do not even have the feeds; they import them from Brazil, yet we have the capacity here to grow feeds for export. I do not know what the Ministry of Trade is doing in terms of looking at the opportunities out there. You can imagine the distance between Qatar and Brazil, but that is where they get their feeds. Kenya is only six days' travel by water to Qatar if we were to get into such kind of space. I hope the new Principal Secretary will look into our capability and exploit the same so that we elevate this country to the next level. Finally, we also have an issue with industrialisation. We have passed laws in this House to encourage local manufacturing and value addition. While we have good laws, I do not think the Ministry is doing enough to attract investors who could leverage these laws and the opportunities we have. This would help establish industries here and create employment for the thousands of young men in this country. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for the opportunity."
}