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"id": 176994,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Kabando wa Kabando",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this very important Sessional Paper No.2 of 2008, whose time is really overdue. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Motion. In view of the need to diversify our investments, as indicated by the hon. Members who have spoken before me, we need to reach out to those areas. It is a sub-sector that really needs a lot of capacitation. This Sessional Paper is very timely and deserving of our great support. One, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, is the need to diversify. Many investments in the agricultural sector are needed in order to take that sector to another level and, therefore, we need a lot of more consolidation from the Government in terms of financing and creating institutions that will enable a clear focus, evaluation and monitoring of the progress. Therefore, this Sessional Paper is identifying clear ways to engage stakeholders on the ground. It is very important to have the Government working in partnership with the farmers, herders and investors on the ground. It is crucial because we need to devolve decision making and build the capacity of those who are running that industry so that their views and interests are customised as per their needs and their respective areas of investments. The other point that comes out very clearly, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, is that the Ministry has focused on the area of research and analysis. Analysis is needed because a lot of paper work has been done in this country; many seminars, workshops and forums have been conducted. In collaboration with the civil society, many programmes have been done on the ground. It is important to take our public policy, particularly on livestock development, to a new level, to engage in serious analysis of all the studies that have been done so that, whatever programmes or projects that will be put on the ground, are done with updated information and the current market issues, needs, inputs and outputs. All those need to be put into consideration. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we do take note that this Sessional Paper provides for capacity enhancement of grassroot organisations. In many parts of this country, particularly in those areas that have solely relied on livestock for their economic profits, subsistence and livelihoods, there is a heavy presence of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the civil society, particularly in the northern part of this country. That has been very beneficial to those people. They have received some support from those organisations. There has been heavy absence of Government agencies. There are other areas that are considered to be benefiting from other agro- based industries and which may not have heavy or loud livestock issues. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, every part of this country needs serious attention. As hon. Members of the Tenth Parliament, we realise the divide between those who have the resources - the 42 per cent that have resources. Those resources are said to be in the hands of 10 per cent of the population. That is the general situation in every part of this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have read the section that talks about gender. In that portion of gender, there is the issue of how the young people - and that is what we were talking about yesterday in this House - will be mainstreamed. That is part of the gender issue. That is an area that needs a review when the Ministry starts the operationalization of this policy, when it will be passed by this House. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in all parts of this country - in every village, district or constituency - increasingly and critically, young people, for lack of enjoying property ownership instruments, have been sidelined from economic activities which are predictable and reliable. Therefore, although this policy mentions in general terms the need to have women involved in the livestock industry, appropriate capital and be promoted, there is need to emphasize even more that, December 3, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3843 among the gender we are talking about, there is a very significant percentage of our population of young women and men that need credit and financial interventions, so that they may engage in livestock rearing and make a difference in their lives. This will ensure that they make a difference in their lives. Not many of the young people in this country can rely on huge tracts of land. But this policy seeks to bring on board areas that were hitherto not considered mainstream in livestock development matters. Examples are apiculture, bee-keeping, crocodile keeping, snake keeping, ostrich keeping and butterfly keeping. These are new areas which will require less of land occupation but more of capital intensity. Therefore, the issue of information and dissemination as clearly stipulated in this policy is good. It will allow fast-tracking of the available opportunities in the areas that I have mentioned, so that the young people of this country can invest in this area and earn some income, and, therefore, increase the household income across the country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other point is the need to partner very clearly, as covered in this policy, with the civil society. It has been very present in some areas of this country. But in every part of the country, there is need to have the civil society, the NGOs and CBOs, whose partnership is indispensable in order to create the necessary mechanism that will bring independent audit and additional value in form of new ideas, which will not be motivated by the profiteering culture that, otherwise, other commercial institutions may have. Finally, it is the question of having equitable access to markets. Something is happening in this country. We have the goat and camel milk, sometimes displayed in our city markets. But information about how to access markets and use infrastructure to get the product so obtained from one corner of this country to another is the question. Therefore, this policy gives us encouragement that, indeed, there will be efforts, clear and solid, to give elaborate information, based on the research conducted and prevailing issues in the market. As detailed in the general Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) policy framework for Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and other interventions for pro-poor policies in every country, it is important to note that this policy will be handy. Very finally, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, is to know that there is need to emphasise the need for the autonomy of institutions that are performing, or which have indicated clearly the capacity to deliver; for example the Kenya Dairy Board. There was a contemplated Dairy Bill and a dairy policy. That is something I have read and noted a bit of an omission which, I am sure, the Minister will take note of, so that though we are talking about the livestock subsector and livestock products, we should not forget the milestone that the dairy subsector has been in the last five years. The revival of the Kenya Co-operative Creameries, the marketing capacities that the KDB has, the capacity the Kenya Dairy Producers Association (KDPA), founded about two years ago, has and its status to date are important. Therefore, all these issues will need our support. Very finally, is for us leaders to also note that we have some achievements that need to be celebrated. For any policy to be effective, we have a Constitution but sometimes we are challenged and we abrogate the same Constitution. We have laws that prescribe what we should and should not do. We, as leaders, have an obligation, legal and moral, to ensure that we cultivate the sense of conflict-resolution in areas of the country where, otherwise, peace is challenged. Also, we should ensure that we initiate programmes that will allow, particularly, pastoralist communities in some parts of this country to live in peace and to co-ordinate; without peace, no matter what electoral capital we put on the table, no matter what legislation we do to put Kenya on a new level and towards Vision 2030--- Without the obligation to promote and maintain peace, farmers in our constituencies will not produce. Nearly Kshs100 billion was wasted in the first quarter of this year because of violence. Billions continue to be wasted in some parts of this country because of inter-clan and inter-ethnic conflicts. So, that is another thing that needs to be 3844 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES December 3, 2008 emphasised. It is important to do so because we have no other option. This means that as we pass all these issues, we should stop dancing on the platform of ethnic bigotry, tribalism and using every opportunity that we have in the House and outside to blemish the reputation of communities which deserve to be there because they were created by God. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}