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{
    "id": 217616,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/217616/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 253,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Angwenyi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 326,
        "legal_name": "Jimmy Nuru Ondieki Angwenyi",
        "slug": "jimmy-angwenyi"
    },
    "content": "owners and members of the public. That is the only source of livelihood for themselves and their families. Now, if you cut off that source of livelihood, what do you expect them to do? They go to their homes in the evening without a penny and see their children dying. Are they going to lie down there, wait and watch their children dying? It is not humanly possible to do so. Even if somebody cut off your pay from here and you went to your home and found your family dying of hunger, what would you do? Would you not carry a panga and approach Angwenyi and maybe slash him so that you can get part of his pocket money and then you fend for your family for another day or two days? Would you not do that? That is human nature that you protect your family. What they have done cannot be condoned by any right thinking Kenyan, but let us go further and get to the root cause of this problem. This Mungiki behaviour has been manifested mainly in Central Kenya, but I fear it might spread throughout the country. The other day, I was in Kisii Town. While there, I saw a certain Asian trader who was illegally allocated land where the womenfolk sell their wares to fend for their families. So, this Asian trader went ahead and fenced off the land but the womenfolk, of all people, were up in arms baying for his blood. Most of these womenfolk are christians. I know that Kisii womenfolk are mainly christians of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) and Catholic faiths. Those are very conservative faiths. Women normally do not carry arms. However, they were prepared to carry arms to fight this person. Why? Because they knew their source of livelihood had been cut short. So, let us handle this issue very carefully even if it means reducing expenditure in certain areas and address the issue of unemployment. The second issue I would like to address, which was not addressed by this Minister, is where we generate our revenue from. For example, we generate our revenue from tea growing areas. There is no element in this Budget that addresses the problems of the tea growers, especially the small-scale ones. The cost of building a factory today is ten times what it was five years ago. We expect these poor small-scale farmers to contribute funds to the tune of 50 per cent of the cost of building a factory, say, Kshs500 million. You find that around 5,000 small-scale tea farmers are required to contribute Kshs250 million before they can build a factory. If they do not do that, their tea goes to waste, yet this tea is grown in very small shambas . So, I thought this Minister will, once for a change, address the problems facing tea growers. This is because they are the ones who have June 20, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1947 maintained this economy over the years, without being given any support by the Government. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, while I am on that issue again, the road network in the tea and coffee growing areas is actually not there. The rains have pounded on those roads. We do gravelling and then the roads are washed away after one month. We go back to the same deplorable situation. I wish this Minister insisted by asking the Ministry of Roads and Public Works to provide a change of policy that they can only fund roads in tea growing areas by making simple seal tarmacking. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}