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{
"id": 181378,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/181378/?format=api",
"text_counter": 260,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Maj-Gen. Nkaisserry",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Ministry of State for Defence",
"speaker": {
"id": 192,
"legal_name": "Joseph Kasaine Ole Nkaissery",
"slug": "joseph-nkaissery"
},
"content": " Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to make very few remarks on the National Livestock Policy. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, first of all, I would like to congratulate the Ministry under the able leadership of Dr. Kuti for coming up with this Policy. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in this country, Livestock Policy has been long overdue. It is during the tenure of the current Minister, who is a pastarolist, that we are now able to see this Policy being brought to Parliament. I hope that once Parliament adopts this Policy, the Government will take appropriate action to ensure it is implemented so that it can help the pastarolists. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are quite a few areas which I think the Minister and his technocrats need to look into. First and foremost, I have gone through the Policy and I did not see a concrete recommendation that we should have pilot livestock farms in every constituency. This could even be supported by the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). Each constituency will have a pilot farm which can do several things. They will undertake to maintain high quality livestock breed. These include cattle, sheep, goats and camel in the case of North Eastern Province. This is very important! We can have such pilot projects. We used to have Livestock Marketing Development (LMD) projects. Some of those LMDs have been converted into holding grounds by local authorities. The Ministry should repossess those LMDs. We should convert the LMDs land into pilot livestock projects to improve the quality of our breeds. I do not see that in the proposed policy. Secondly, I have looked at that policy, but it has not come out very strongly on the establishment of a revolving fund for pastoralists. We should take that away from Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC). We should have an independent fund for livestock farmers. That way, we would disengage from AFC and create a Livestock Finance Corporation (LFC). That way, we will have our own money to mitigate the problems of drought and cushion livestock farmers. You realise that AFC is writing off loans owed by coffee farmers. It is writing off loans totalling to billions of Kenya Shillings. It has written off Kshs3.2 billion for coffee farmers. It is also contemplating writing off loans owed by sugar-cane farmers to the tune of Kshs42 billion. But livestock farmers, who have always been affected by drought, have not received a write off of even Kshs1 billion. The Government is not taking care of livestock farmers. Mark you, 80 per cent of the land in this country is occupied by pastoralists. The strongest economy is held by pastoralists. But this Government is not really considering livestock farmers. So, the policy did not come out forcefully on this issue. Thirdly, I would like to talk about the issue of marketing of livestock products. I suggested to the former Minister for Livestock in the Ninth Parliament that it is important to establish an abattoir in every constituency, so that we can support the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC). We have tried to keep KMC afloat. I cannot say it is because of corruption, but there is total failure in KMC because it is doing nothing. I am a livestock farmer. I supplied beef cattle to KMC with an 3208 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 30, 2008 agreement of certain amount of money per certain quality. They tend to give quality to exotic animals from white farmers. When you bring livestock from Ukambani, you are given a raw deal. Your breed is always under-graded. That is unacceptable. We need an abattoir in every constituency, so that we can supply beef. We can be the agents of KMC to supply beef even to Saudi Arabia and Middle East. We could take off from Garissa and Wajir. We have an international airport at Wajir, which was built for military purposes. We can use it for military purposes when there are military operations but, for the time being, we can convert it and use it to supply beef and livestock products to Middle East and the rest of the world. It is not very clearly stated in the Sessional Paper. I have not seen that issue captured in the policy. So, it is important that we include it in the policy . Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, regarding the issue of vaccination, we have the problem of peste des petitis ruminants (PPR) which is very new. We also have the problem of East Coast Fever and Rift Valley Fever. What is the responsibility of the Government if it cannot vaccinate livestock, yet farmers can pay some little money. Vaccination is imperative and it is in law. Vaccination of certain diseases must be taken care of on a regular basis because we have scientists to tell when to vaccinate livestock. I think this is a very good policy if the Minister could go back and modify it. We request the Government to adopt this policy and ensure that livestock farmers are given what is due to them. With those few remarks, I support."
}