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{
    "id": 175445,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/175445/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 229,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Muturi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 102,
        "legal_name": "Barnabas Muturi C. Mwangi",
        "slug": "barnabas-mwangi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. I stand to support this Motion. I congratulate the hon. Member who brought the Motion. A lot has been said about control of prices. It is also important to note that the main problem we have here is the Government policy we are dealing with. It seems not to direct the country towards food security. We do not know, up to today, if the Ministry of Agriculture and the Treasury are ready to direct this country towards food security. We have been talking about maize and maize flour all the time as if Kenyans can only survive on maize. We have read and heard that the Minister for Agriculture spent a lot of time in North Rift, trying to persuade maize growers to sell their maize. Honestly, central Kenya, where I come from, is an importer of maize from the North Rift. Why has the Minister not addressed the prices of coffee, tea and milk? We cannot afford to buy the maize he is talking about if the prices of coffee and tea are not addressed. The pastoralists are crying out saying that their animals are dying due to lack of water. The challenge we have here is the Government policy. Could we get guidelines? We have other problems. Last week, the hon. Member for Kandara Constituency raised a Question here regarding hippos feeding on maize. Who is in charge of these animals? When we are buying maize, they are destroying our crops in irrigation schemes. I wish that these hippos were slaughtered for Christmas for the poor farmers who have to buy maize flour at Kshs72. There is no logic, whatsoever, for a group of people to be sold a two-kilogrammes packet of maize flour at Kshs72, while others are buying it at Kshs52. I listened to some leaders of this country, giving political slogans and poor Kenyans responding unga ! unga ! If this is what hon. Members of the Grand Coalition will do to our people; addressing them and telling them to elect them to political positions and yet we cannot even control prices--- Why does Kenya wait to be told what to subsidise? When we had a problem in South Africa, the South African Government went ahead and controlled oil prices. Why does our Government have to wait until we bring a Motion here? 3990 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES December 10, 2008 Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, in Europe, when crops are destroyed by storms and thunderstorms, farmers are catered for. This has not happened in this country. There is need for policy change in this country. The Government should not wait until we bring Motions to this House to protect our farmers. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}