HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 181854,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/181854/?format=api",
"text_counter": 165,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Mututho",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 97,
"legal_name": "John Michael Njenga Mututho",
"slug": "john-mututho"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. First of all, I want to thank the 3146 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 29, 2008 Minister for Agriculture for the direction he is moving the Ministry. In life, the important thing is not where you are but what direction you are moving to. Having said that, I want to pick from where Mr. Bett left in terms of precautions. Cartagena Protocol Article 21 is very specific that we must do proper risk assessment before introducing any new products into the market. We are signatory to Cartagena Protocol and looking at Article 23 in itself, it is mandatory that we involve everybody who is concerned before we commit ourselves to introduce these organisms or any technology on that aspect. Fertiliser is becoming a very thorny issue. We remember about Kenren and many things that have happened. Instead of thinking two big, I think we should facilitate this Ministry to do a smaller factory. We better even be doing 10 per cent production than wait for this whole country production that may never take effect. I am glad that \"Serikali\" is making too much noise to the Minister of Agriculture. With his able technicians around, I am sure somebody is recording. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Champagne is a market somewhere in France. Any wine from that village is called Champagne. Everything else is sparkling wine. Our Kenyan coffee has its own quality, because of our very unique altitude, unique factors like soil, unique cultivation methods like hand-picking and so on. Our coffee is our coffee. There are people who think that our coffee should only be used for blending. We are glad that the Minister for Agriculture has seen it necessary now to get us out of this slavery, where our coffee has been used for blending. Our coffee should be used as a brand, just like Champagne. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, soil and water conservation efforts by this Ministry was commendable in the 1980s. Somehow, things did not work out right. As they are doing other things, they should also pay a lot of attention to soil and water conservation. In any case, no matter how good policies we advocate in crop production and agronomy, if you have lost all the soil, then you come to zero. You all know about Soko Mjinga on the highways and the small markets. They make good products available to urban people at affordable prices. However, it is impossible to have the produce reach the highways or market places because of roads. The Minister should discuss this with his counterparts, especially now that we have a Prime Minister, who is supposed to coordinate all efforts, so that the people in Kinangop and in Narok, who have produce can access markets. As a gesture, the Minister for Agriculture should seriously think about improving small markets, starting with Soko Mjinga around the escarpment, and then going to Kinungi, Timboroa, Salgaa and others, so as to improve things like handling of vegetables and storage. We see structures on the road where the Horticultural Crops Development Authority has done something. But since people know Soko Mjinga, Salgaa or Kinungi, let us facilitate that by doing something useful, so that people travelling to Nairobi can deliver home very good vegetables. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is a shame that this Government has ignored what was being done in 1970s. The Ministry of Agriculture was enjoying 13 per cent of the budgetary allocations. Today, we are talking of a paltry 4.5 per cent to be shared between seven very \"hungry and thirsty\" Ministries. I want to say that when His Excellency the President was the Minister for Finance, he introduced a requirement that every financial institution must, as part of its lending portfolio, have 17 per cent going to the agricultural sector. I want to remind him, because I am sure he is listening right now, that he should tell his Minister for Finance that we should start at 13 per cent and head towards 17 per cent, because Kenya is an agricultural country. Let us not even dare imagine that this country can develop any further if we continue ignoring our farmers, and if we continue with this meagre financing of agriculture. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am glad that this Ministry has looked at some serious legal issues to do with wetlands. Those wetlands are covered by the Ramsa Convention. The Ramsa Convention has prepared certain guidelines on how we should manage wetlands. It is through them October 29, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3147 that lakes like Lake Naivasha are sustained. It is by sustaining Lake Naivasha that we also maintain the flower industry around the lake. I would like to request that the whole business of irrigation and water distribution be entrusted to the Ministry of Agriculture. When you allow people to draw so much water from the aquifer, you will find that you have disastrous effects. Water sips from Lake Naivasha to go and recharge the aquifers, and that way we defeat our own process. I say this with a lot of pain; as you drive on the highway, you see acacias are nowhere. Acacia is a wonderful tree, which indicates existence of a high water table but is now dying. This is so because, maybe, this Ministry is not in charge. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other aspect that I would like to persuade you on is that this Government should take the famine relief efforts back to the Ministry of Agriculture. It is not good to have the Ministry of State for Special Programme dealing with the distribution of food. The Ministry of Agriculture has the technical capability to understand whether production is going right or wrong. It has the personnel to know who is suffering and what kind of food is required. I think it was a wrong policy to have the Ministry of State for Special Programmes and the Office of the President dealing with the issue of famine relief. I think they are very busy with security matters, anyway. That whole docket of famine relief starts with the distribution of seeds. We failed to distribute seeds to Ukambani and fertilisers; so, you can expect to deliver famine relief food to that area. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am giving this House full advantage of my experience of over 21 years in that Ministry by saying that this Ministry has a future and can go very far, but certain things have to be done right; these are things like staff recruitment, staff morale, staff housing. The idea of the staff having uniforms is good, but let it be decent uniform, so that they can feel free to walk around, rather than having something which is a compromise between a housegirl's uniform and an officer's uniform. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}