HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 196454,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/196454/?format=api",
"text_counter": 43,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Chachu",
"speaker_title": "The Member for North Horr",
"speaker": {
"id": 18,
"legal_name": "Francis Chachu Ganya",
"slug": "francis-ganya"
},
"content": " Thank you Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. As I said before, I wonder whether we have sheer understanding of fairness and equity in this country. We have so many state corporations representing the interests of all other Kenyans and yet, we do not have one representing the interests of pastoralists. The Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) which is a state corporation is really established to represent the interests of large-scale livestock ranchers and other pastoralists in northern Kenya. In this country, each and every child is provided with education at home where he or she lives. A pastoralist child has to walk for kilometres to look for education. I do not think this is acceptable in the modern Kenya. I really hope this country, especially with the new Ministries, will do what is necessary for the pastoralists to be provided with the services that they require. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, this country is yet to understand the complex and nomadic pastoralist way of life. We are nomadic and mobile. Our lifestyle demands for mobile service delivery in form education, health care and drought management. We need a service delivery that is responsive to the needs and livelihood of our people. Year in, year out, our people are fed with relief aid and famine relief. Drought is something that is cyclical and very predictable, just like winter and summer in western Europe. Why is our Government not being and responsive by providing proactive drought management strategies that can prepare our people, so that when the drought comes, they are able to manage it instead of just being victims year in, year out? I really hope this time we will come up with drought management strategies that will enable our people to respond and to prepare for drought, just like winter and summer in Europe. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, our people do not need relief food or handouts from anybody. They want opportunities for quality education, livestock products and infrastructural development. That is all we need. We do not need millions of money that is being spent on food aid year in, year out. I think it is a shame to this nation when the only livestock market in Kenya for goats and sheep is the informal market of Kariobangi. I really hope that this country will do what it takes to ensure that the livestock sector is promoted and given the necessary support, just like Botswana and many others parts of the world are doing, where livestock is the mainstay of the economy. Our livestock is said not to be of good quality or rather ridden by pests and diseases, hence it cannot even be sold to the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) or exported to other parts of the world. Yet, the same animals when they cross borders to Ethiopia and Somalia are sold by Ethiopians and Somalis to Yemen, Saudi Arabia and many parts of the world. I really hope that the Ministry of Livestock Development will do what is necessary to support our livestock sector. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I oppose this Motion for the simple reason that plastic materials are not bio-degradable. The mother earth is not able to absorb these plastic materials. Any responsible manufacture should be able to take back what he produces and sell it to the market. It is a rule that for any material that you produce, you must be able to re-use or recycle. For plastic materials, even if it is buried under the sand as solid waste, it does not break down. We do not know even its composition. Because of that, it is not good for our health, ecology and environment. We are losing our culture and livelihood to the plastic menace. In Norther Kenya, thousands of animals die every year simply because of feeding on those plastic waste materials that are spread all over the area. This is simply because the animals' digestive system is not able to manage the plastic materials once it is swallowed. More to that, we are losing our tradition. I mean the traditional knowledge or the ingenuity of our people is being lost as we buy plastic containers. The pastoralists of Northern Kenya have invented traditional containers for milk, honey, oil and all kind of materials. They are all bio-degradable and can last from generation to generation. Today, all that knowledge is being lost simply because these plastic materials are cheaply available in the market. We do not look at other impacts and consequences of these plastic materials. Our people buy these 480 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 16, 2008 materials and the knowledge and ingenuity that our people have had for generations have been lost over the years. As I said before, I simply oppose this Motion because it is not ecologically friendly. It is not socially and economically acceptable. If you do environmental impact of these materials in a holistic way, you can say it is not economically feasible to use it. With those few remarks, I beg to oppose the Motion."
}