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"id": 195509,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Murgor",
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"legal_name": "Julius Recha Murgor",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to share in this essential Motion. I beg to support the Motion. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to thank the Government for creating the Ministry of northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands, which is going to focus on issues of northern Kenya and other parts. The arid parts of Kenya constitute almost 80 per cent of our land mass. I would like to comment on food security. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I hope the Government, and the Minister for Finance, will allocate a lot of money to the Ministry of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands, so that we can look into food security in that area. Every year, it is expected that northern Kenya and many parts will have shortage of food. From history, there should be a plan to avail food to northern Kenya and other arid lands, so that we do not experience shortage of food and starvation every time and again. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in some countries such as the USA, not every state can grow all crops. There is a way of taking food to places where certain crops are not grown. In Kenya, I know that the central part of Kenya has a lot of food that goes to waste. Food crops such as potatoes, carrots, maize among others go to waste. If there was a way that the Government could purposely plan, the food could be transported northwards and people from central Kenya would get meat from the north. Those people in the north have cows, goats and sheep. There should be a way of bringing those animals down to the central part of Kenya and not waiting until the livestock die out of starvation due to drought among other things. People in the north should sell their animals and get money to buy food. The food in the central part of Kenya should be sold through a co- operative society so that there is a purposeful plan to take that food northwards. That way, we would not have anybody dying of starvation and the animals in the north would not be dying due to drought like they do. I am hoping that in the next Budget, even in the Supplementary Estimates, education in the north and the arid and semi-arid lands, particularly among the nomadic people, will be looked into. Up to now, 50 years after Independence, many children do not go to school because these are people who move around. When they move around, they move with their children. So, if there are no boarding schools, parents move around with their children and take them to places which have no schools. The children end up losing time to attend classes and so on. Boarding schools would cater for those children so that when their parents move from one area to another, they can be accommodated and their education taken care of. Lack of development in the northern parts of Kenya and parts of the arid and semi-arid lands is as a result of parents moving around with their animals. The other thing that I would like to touch on is health. During budgeting, we should look 818 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 30, 2008 into the issue of health so that some of the places that do not have hospitals can have dispensaries and clinics built. Health facilities should be built in remote areas and in the rural areas so that they can cater for people who fall ill in those areas. Some areas are almost 50 to 100 miles away from the nearest health centre or hospital. So, it is very urgent that we build small clinics, hospitals or dispensaries in these areas so that people can go there when they are sick. A physician should be there to attend to the sick people."
}