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{
"id": 206380,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/206380/?format=api",
"text_counter": 104,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
"slug": "moses-wetangula"
},
"content": "Therefore, when we talk of ASAL, we must start from the premise that ASAL does not exclusively mean northern and north eastern Kenya, but includes many other parts of this country as well. If you go to Thika, you will encounter ASAL conditions. If you go to Athi River, you will encounter ASAL conditions. This Motion seeks to bring a Bill to pay attention to those areas. First and foremost, given the little time left for this Parliament, it is unlikely that Prof. Ojiambo will be able to bring the Bill and have it passed. Secondly, what the Motion is asking us to do is nothing new. That is why I am opposing it. When you want to make interventions in ASAL areas, what are you talking about? You are talking about land management, for which we have the law and policy in place. You are talking of environmental management, for which we have the law and policy in place. You are talking of roads and communication, for which we have the law and policy in place. You talk of communication, education and transport, we have the law and policy in place. What is lacking? What is lacking is the implementation of the stated policies. We need roads, dams, communication antennas and so on. I was happily told by hon. Munyes the other day that, for the first time, Turkanas can watch television. Those are the interventions we need. We do not need a Bill of Parliament because the law is already there. This law that we want to pass, if the Bill comes, how is it going to link and co-ordinate with all the myriad existing laws? Are we going to pluck out the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), roads and water and put all of them in the new Bill? No! I think what we need is an affirmative action to allocate more funds to areas identified and agreed upon as ASAL, and make all the rapid interventions that we require. For example, we need a road from the coast across to Moyale. We need a road from Isiolo to Moyale, 3532 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 29, 2007 so that it can link us to Ethiopia. That will automatically open up the ASAL areas of the north. We need a road to run from the Tanzanian border, through Webuye, Kitale, Kapenguria, Lodwar up to Lokichoggio. That will open up those ASAL areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the issues that has really been bothering me about the ASAL management is the poor management of land. The ecosystem of the ASAL areas is very fragile. In fact, it is very poor. If you go to Kajiado, or Laikipia, today--- The only place where people have not destroyed the lifestyle of ASAL populations is, perhaps, North Eastern Province. People are busy demarcating and fencing land into small unproductive portions, yet the lifestyles of these ASAL communities is such that they have to move and keep on moving. You cannot claim to own a ranch if it is just about 500 acres in an ASAL area. That cannot sustain even 50 head of cattle. We have to evolve a policy of stoping the subdivision of group ranches, so that people can be left to graze their livestock freely. We need to interrogate the Budget to see how much money has been allocated to the Deputy Speaker's constituency for water, because it is an ASAL area. You do not need a Bill of Parliament to do that. All that you need is an allocation of funds under the relevant Ministry, so that they can dam the storm water sufficiently to hold and use it to the next rains. They could drill boreholes to provide clean water for wananchi, build dams to provide water for animals and start micro-irrigation programmes around those micro-dams to produce basic food. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to laud the Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Development and the Government for reviving the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC). However, we must also learn lessons as to why KMC collapsed. We ended up losing our European market for meat. We ended up losing our manpower in KMC to Botswana. We hope that we will not slip back again. One important thing that this Motion mentions, that needs to be addressed by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, is the prospecting for minerals. If you go to Tanzania, across the border, you will see the intensity with which they are prospecting for minerals. They are now mining coal. They already have diamonds in Mwadui - you must have learned this in primary school. They have discovered uranium, and they also have natural gas. They are busy prospecting for minerals everywhere. Talk of tanzanites in Arusha here! What are we doing here? We have left profiteers to scavenge for stones in Taveta and Taita, and all the other mineral potential in the entire northern and north eastern Kenya has not been prospected at all. I have no doubt in my imagination that we have all the minerals available in our neighbourhood, that is gold, diamonds and so on. If we look for them, I am sure we will find them. We need the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to be more proactive than it is. It needs to prospect for minerals in the ASAL areas, so that we can generate sufficient income in preparation for the achievement of our Vision 2030. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, to end my contribution, I want to laud Mama Julia for bringing the Motion. She has brought very important Motions here, for example the Motion on cotton, which enabled us to eventually pass a Bill. However, on this particular Motion, I am afraid that I will have to part ways with her. I see no reason, or meaning at all, in legislating specifically for ASAL areas, because we already have a myriad of legislations that can serve and help ASAL areas. All we need is a proactive policy. It is this Parliament which approves the Budget, and so it must ensure that there is sufficient allocation of funds for ASAL areas for purposes of improving the lifestyles of people living in the ASAL areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to oppose the Motion."
}