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"id": 217223,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Ndwiga",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Co-operative Development and Marketing",
"speaker": {
"id": 278,
"legal_name": "Peter Njeru Ndwiga",
"slug": "peter-ndwiga"
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"content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you very much for this opportunity to contribute to this Motion. I want to join the rest of the House in congratulating the Minister for a wonderful Budget which reflects the economic growth of this country. More specifically, I wish to congratulate the Minister and thank him on behalf of the Kenyan farmers. The Budget really focused on the farming community. Listening to my friend, Mr. Raila, I get amused. I actually get shocked when people talk about the net effect of the growth of the economy not trickling down to the ordinary person. What does it mean when you do not have to pay school fees? What does it mean when you have access to the market? What does it mean when the ordinary dairy farmers who yester-year, were selling their milk at Kshs8, now sell it at Kshs18 shillings? What does it mean when you have a good rural road due to the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF)? That is what all of us are meant to do with our money. Access to markets has developed and increased the incomes of very ordinary people on the ground. What does it mean when the maize farmers who used to sell their maize at Kshs400 per bag of maize, now sell the same at Kshs1,300 per bag? The wheat farmers used to sell at Kshs600 but they are now selling at Kshs2,000. Yet, you get leaders who have the audacity to even announce from the Floor of the House that the effects are not being felt on the ground. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is time we took the bull by the horns, went out to the ground and led our people. We cannot sing politics for 24 hours, seven days a week and 365 days a year. That is how we promote poverty in this country. It is time, as leaders, we went out to the countryside and showed our people how to utilise and get the benefit of a growing economy. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in this Budget, the Minister zero-rated milk powder. That effect is going to be tremendous for the dairy farmers in this country. It is going to be huge. This year, the Government did put a strategic food reserve. What is the effect? The effect is that from now on, all the milk produced by the Kenyan dairy farmers will get market. As the Minister for Co-operative Development and Marketing, I would like to say that we have ready markets for all the milk that Kenyans can produce. In fact, right now, as I stand here, we do not have even one packet of powder milk in the new Kenya Co-operative Creameries (KCC). It is all gone since the day of the Budget. That is what it means. Who is getting the benefits? The benefit is trickling down to the ordinary dairy farmer. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, regarding security, I am really saddened by the over-tones of some hon. Members that young Kenyans are being killed. But the policemen who are being killed, are they expatriates? Are they not Kenyans? Every other day, three policemen are killed, but not even one hon. Member stands in this House to condemn the killing of policemen by criminals. But the moment police defend themselves, what do you hear? They say that innocent Kenyans are being killed, they should be arrested. Why can you not ask the criminals to arrest the policemen? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the policemen have a law that they use which governs the Police Force. Policemen are quite in order to use the necessary force to defend themselves. All of us in this country should stop the blame game and get to terms with what is happening on the ground. It is time all leaders stood with one voice and condemned criminality and the actions of criminals. You do not want to come to Parliament and defend criminals and say that they should have been arrested. I am quite aware that there is no order from the Government to shoot to kill. That, I happen to know. There is no such order. But the police force has an act which says, only in self defence. When these things happen to the people we know, that is when we get to terms with what is happening and what has happened. Some of these criminal gangs were bred by the previous Government and they have slowly June 26, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2039 mushroomed into very organized gangs. It is time these gangs, wherever they are, be they cattle rustlers in West Pokot and Turkana, or the Mungiki in Nairobi and Kiambu, were dealt with. That is the wish of Kenyans. Kenyans want a secure environment, within which, they can do their business, at a time when the economy is blooming. We need to have a blooming economy, so that we can enjoy its effects. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on development, I wish also to congratulate the Government for, specifically, concentrating on the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs). There is no way a country can grow in one section. We need to develop this country from all corners. I am satisfied that, today, livestock farmers have a ready market. Indeed, what I hear is that the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) is not getting enough animals to slaughter. This being a new venture, now it is incumbent upon the Government, perhaps, through all the leaders from ASALs, to form marketing co-operatives in ASALs, so that we can breed quality animals and sell them to the KMC. That is what we need to do, instead of talking about poverty and claiming that the effects of the economic growth are not trickling down to the ground. That is not true. We need to grow up in terms of our politics, so that we can give guidance. Instead of complaining, we need to give guidance to our people and this country. Mr. Deputy speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}