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"id": 174547,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/174547/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Foreign Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
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"content": " Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I also wish to join colleagues who have spoken before me in supporting this Motion of Adjournment; the first long recess that this Parliament is taking. As we break, it is good that we all look back with a sense of both guilt and pride; guilt with what happened in January and February and pride that we were able to resolve it. As we break, I want to wish all my colleagues a merry Christmas and happy new year and good interaction with their constituents. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we get to the end of the year, it is also the critical farming season for the most high potential areas in this country. I want to urge the Minister for Agriculture to do everything possible to make sure that affordable fertilizer and quality seeds are available to the farmers in this country so that we can produce sufficient food. There is absolutely no justification whatsoever, for the middleman in this country to sell fertilizer at Kshs6,000 per bag to the farmer, when the price of oil, which is the main raw material for fertilizer, has dropped from US$160 per barrel to US$44 per barrel. I would also want to see the Minister requisitioning funds to make a critical intervention to help the farmers by using the Kenya Farmers Association (KFA) and Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) and other arms of Government that are involved in agriculture to import fertilizer and distribute to the farmers at affordable rates. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have just passed, in this House, a Select Committee. I congratulate those who are in the Committee. I do hope that with lessons of the past, we are not going to get to this Committee and people start pursuing narrow partisan, ethnic and regional agenda that will derail the process of giving this country a new Constitution. As one colleague said yesterday, we are here as Members of the National Assembly, and if we leave behind partisan interests, we can and, indeed, should give this country a new Constitution. We have walked down this road before. Some of us who were involved in the last process, went through the frustrations of some of our colleagues, turning into incredible hardliners and taking positions that were completely unhelpful to the process of achieving a new Constitution. We hope that the consensus mood displayed here this afternoon, will run through the process to the end of achievement of a new Constitution. Finally, I want to urge all Members of Parliament, particularly, our brothers and sisters from North Eastern Province, to join the Government in assisting the country, in helping Somalia come to terms with its requirement for peace. What is going on in Somalia is not good at all. I want to urge my colleagues who have access to the brethren across the border, like my brother, hon. Affey, who has been our Ambassador to Somalia, and others, to assist the country and region, in reaching out to our brothers in Somalia and telling them that there is no alternative to peace; that brinkmanship and digging in on unhelpful issues does not help the course of peace in their country and it affects the region very adversely. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}