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"id": 207613,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/207613/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mrs. Mwendwa",
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"speaker": {
"id": 275,
"legal_name": "Winfred Nyiva Mwendwa",
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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this very important Vote. I do not agree with the rating which was given by the previous contributor, who said that the Ministry of Water and Irrigation is rated second or third in its performance. I would rate this Ministry as the first in its performance because it works to full capacity. If this Ministry worked to full capacity, we would have many healthy people. Therefore, the Ministry of Health would have been, partly, taken care of. We would also create a lot of employment. Therefore, our security would improve because many people would be employed. If the Ministry worked to full capacity, the Ministry of Education would also do well because we would have healthy children and no drop-outs. We have many drop-outs in my area, when there is food shortage. If it were in my power, I would give this Ministry the billions of shillings we spend during the drought season to buy relief food. Why can we not buy this food in advance by giving this Ministry a lot of money to invest in irrigation? That way, we would not fall back to importing food because of drought. I am convinced that this Ministry should be given more funds. Let me commend the Ministry because we have seen a lot of improvement. We promised our people many years ago, through this Parliament, that every family in Kenya would have running water by the year 2000. That was in 1974 because the year 2000 sounded to be very far away. But as we speak today, although we commend the Ministry because there are many improvements, the water is still out of reach to many people compared to what it was in the 1970s. Therefore, the Ministry has got a lot of work to do for us to be self-sufficient. We need a lot of clean drinking water. My experience has been that wherever you drill a single borehole and distribute the water well, the community changes. The health of the people in that community improves and the children become healthy. Everything, including the dogs in that area become clean! Therefore, we need a lot of clean water, maybe not so clean for the animals. Although we are trying to support this Ministry with our CDF money, I must say that it is quite expensive. We also need the Ministry to support us in our efforts, especially when we drill boreholes. We need the Ministry to support us by piping the water so that we do not have boreholes and yet the women and girls have to walk for miles to fetch water from those boreholes. We must try and take that water to the communities. Mr. Speaker, Sir, since we have also got involved in the drilling of water, we have learned even the qualities of pipes. Therefore, I recommend to the Ministry that they should train inspectors so that the work being done, especially the laying of pipes in the rural areas for small boreholes is done properly. We lay these pipes in some places only to find that we used the wrong classification and they burst after a short time, resulting into the whole project coming to an end. Therefore, we need more people to be trained. Not only engineers but artisans and middle cadre people who can help in doing the work, so that where we have done any work, it can remain and be of service to the people. We should not have boreholes serving for a short time and then the water dries up. We need many dams especially in the dry areas whereby, when it rains, the rivers start running but later disappear. If those rivers could be dammed, we could conserve that water. Most waters run into the Indian Ocean. But if there was a way of conserving that water and stopping it from running to the Indian Ocean, I am sure that it would be of a lot of use to us. We do have dams in some areas which were done during the colonial times. Most of them have silted and when they are un-silted - I do not know whether we do not have knowledge or the will power - we do it in such a manner that within a very short time, the silt gets back to the dams. If those dams were done well and extended, we could use that water for animal consumption and for irrigation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the way things are going, the better part of the country is going to depend on irrigation for agriculture. The rain patterns are very erratic and, therefore, we 3390 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 22, 2007 must get ourselves into a system where we are going to irrigate our farms, and for animals to drink. This is not impossible because we have travelled to countries which have worse deserts than our country, and yet, they produce food, even for export. For example, if you go to Israel, they grow anything you can think of. They export oranges, bananas, corn oil and so on. We have a better country than the Middle East countries and the upper part of Africa, but they grow food for themselves and they export it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of my greatest worries is when we beg for food. Sometimes there is a crisis and we have to import food or beg for it. We ask other countries to feed us. A nation which cannot feed itself cannot claim to be a sovereign state. Food is necessary for citizens and we can only claim to be sovereign if we can feed our people. There is no reason why we cannot do so. We have land, manpower and water. It is only that we do not use it the way we should. Therefore, I propose that a genuine move and decision be made at the highest point where proper funds - not a few millions but billions - can be channelled to irrigation, so that we can stop once and for all, the business of ever having to import food. If China and India who have billions of people can feed them and clothe them, why do we have to import food and import second hand clothes for our own citizens when our country can produce? With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}