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"id": 176817,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Chanzu",
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"legal_name": "Yusuf Kifuma Chanzu",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I wish to support the Motion because this issue is a crisis in this country. I want to say that as my colleagues said earlier, a government which cannot feed its own people has got no business being in power. This crisis is caused not because we do not have very hard working Kenyans. We have got a lot of land in this country. This problem has been caused by poor management by the Government because for food prices just to go up overnight and yet the Government is in place, I think it raises a lot of questions. I am happy that the Assistant Minister for Finance is here but it would have been desirable that the other Ministers who have related duties pertaining to this issue were also around to hear what is going on. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, small countries like Israel are able to feed their people. We have got water in this country from Lake Victoria down to the Coast. We also have rivers but there is nothing the Government is doing. Until there is an outcry is when somebody starts talking about reducing or subsidising prices. The Government has subsidised a packet of maize to Kshs72 per packet. How many Kenyans can afford that? This issue should not have come up had we managed our schemes very well. Mr.Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the main cause of food shortage is corruption. I remember a time when some people bought maize from Uganda at Kshs400 and they influenced the Government to control the release of the same from the stores. These fellows bought maize at Kshs400 per bag and sold it at Kshs1,200 and yet the real price was Kshs600 per bag. This price of Ksh1,200 was created by artificial shortages. This is the same thing that is happening even today. I remember a situation whereby somebody at Mumias Sugar Company called upon Wahindis in town here to hoard the supply of sugar just for a day. When people went to the supermarkets they found there was no sugar. Panic followed and within that same day, these people made a lot of money out of that. So, I think we are lacking proper management, control and supervision. Everybody wants to sit in big offices and they do not want to go out to know what is happening to the ordinary mwananchi. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, during the colonial times and immediately after Independence, there was large-scale farming. Today we have demarcated land into small pieces because of leaders wanting to settle their own families, tribes and clans. This has led to subsistence farming whereby they plant maize and beans and eat green maize. Imagine if we had this large- scale farming and the Government got involved and it was properly controlled, we would be net exporters of all these foodstuffs. Many people are holding land which they are not even utilizing for farming. I know of some people who, if you ask them: \"where do you generate you income and wealth from?\", they say that, \"you know I have 1,000 acres of land\". However, in reality, the land is not tilled. I think it is high time we had a policy where all these unutilized land is given to people who can till it. That way, we can produce enough food for our country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other thing I think the Government should consider is the earnings of the ordinary Kenyans. When you drive towards town, along Langata Road, in the morning, very many people walk from Kibera to Industrial Area. I am sure in terms of productivity, these people produce a lot. However, the Government policy on earnings for these December 03, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3823 people is very poor. This is why they cannot afford maize flour even if you reduced the price to Kshs50 per 2 kg packet. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this morning, I raised an issue about the sale of Government assets. The Minister was here. However, I still maintain that the answer he gave was not adequate because there are a few people who get Government assets at throwaway prices. This is on record because somebody goes and fixes--- Who fixes the reserve price? We fix the reserve price ourselves and then we go buy the assets at that price or slightly higher than that. I think we should allow competition. It should be proper competition. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I did not get the written answer to the Question but I would really want to know the owners of some of some of these companies involved in the cartels. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, fuel cost which is the cause of all these problems---"
}