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{
"id": 177008,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/177008/?format=api",
"text_counter": 184,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Lesrima",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Ministry of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security",
"speaker": {
"id": 178,
"legal_name": "Simon Saimanga Lesirma",
"slug": "simon-lesirma"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, please, protect me. I just want to finish my point. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we had the Ministry ferrying grass in lorries from Jamuhuri Park in Nairobi and from Naivasha all the way, 600 kilometres, to Samburu. I feel that, that is an indication of very poor management of grass. We talk about pastoralists moving from place to place. However, I think we need to focus now on how we manage grass and water. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is a lot of pre-occupation with boreholes. December 3, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3855 Somebody must be doing good business with boreholes. Why boreholes always? Why not rock- catchment or dams for water management? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Sessional Paper talks about holding grounds. It also talks about the need for county councils to think about taking care of holding grounds. Why should we involve the county councils? Most of the holding grounds which were set up during colonial days have been grabbed. There was an inventory in the 1990s of all the holding grounds. The purpose of holding grounds was to act as disease control centres. They were used to clean animals as they come from the north. As you know, most of our livestock actually come from Ethiopia and Tanzania. These holding grounds served to clean these animals as they passed through Central Province, which was the centre of dairy sector. Those days, the Kenya Meat Commission was very far away from Nairobi. It was 25 kilometres then. However, now it is the City Centre. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, because of development of road network in Kenya, there is a lot of transportation of animals. There is also a lot of loss of discipline in terms of veterinary checks. However, I think the Government must come out very clearly and repossess the holding grounds that are lying idle, are occupied by squatters or grabbed by people who do not need land. That should come out very clearly in this policy paper. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue is that of breeds. We need to go into fast multiplication using technology to split embryo so that we can have many animals of good quality at the same time. I know this is done by the University of Nairobi at Kapiti, but this information is not available. We also need a gene bank. The red Maasai sheep is very popular in certain markets in the Middle East. However, we see the breed is now disappearing. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, somebody said here that livestock keeping is business. I agree with him. The Kenyan Third Book should also reach small people. We are aware that countries in the neighbourhood, like Rwanda, have been importing cattle. A heifer can go for as much as Kshs200,000. How many farmers have that kind of information? How can we assist our farmers to enter into Kenya's Third Book so that they can get high-value animals which can access international original markets? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know the issue of veterinary officers has been discussed. The last time we recruited veterinary officers in this country was in 1997. We recruited in 1990 and then we had a break. We then recruited again in 1997 and then we stopped. Now, we have 405 veterinary officers in this country and they are likely to retire within the next six or seven years. There is no movement, at all, in the Government to recruit the 4,000 veterinary officers that are required in this country. What does that mean? When you do not have veterinary officers, it means you are not serious about food security. All these veterinary officers will retire and we will be left without any. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, another issue that is very serious in some of the pastoral areas is the quality of acaricide, medicine and drugs. There is a joke in my constituency where people are complaining about the quality of acaricide for killing ticks. Ten years ago, that was a very strong poison! I asked one of councillors, \"how do you know that an acaricide is not strong enough?\". He told me, \"you know, we just taste it\". A few years ago, if you tasted an acaricide, you would not live to tell the story of how it tastes.\" Finally, there is the issue of wildlife. The wildlife occupies a lot of grazing space and transmit diseases to domestic animals. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on forestry, 25 per cent of forest cover in Kenya is located in Samburu but we are not allowed to graze our animals in the forests. However, the policy has now been changed to allow communities to participate in forest management. I think there should be some kind of payment mechanism for those who conserve wildlife and forests. 3856 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES December 3, 2008 With those many remarks, I beg to support."
}