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"id": 217888,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Bahari",
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"speaker": {
"id": 156,
"legal_name": "Abdul Bahari Ali Jillo",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I come from a pastoral set up and I am totally disappointed that nothing has been mentioned of that economy, other than something they called \"disease free zones\". Even on that, we have been hearing about it since 2003, when the African Development Bank was expected to fund that project. But nothing has been implemented. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in fact, on the contrary, we have heard of a fever that has hit those areas and all the livestock has gone! I am surprised. Those are areas that have poverty everywhere. You know the saying: \"Poverty anywhere threatens prosperity everywhere!\" It is the high time that 80 per cent of pastoral areas be addressed with fundamental issues, so that we can turn round this economy. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have been told, in the Budget, about the increased earnings from tourism. The Minister needs to go further and tell us the number of tourists that visited us. If you compare our situation with Tanzania, you will realise that their numbers are very few, but their earnings are higher. There must be something fundamentally wrong in terms of how we declare the earnings that we receive from that area. So, it is quite important for the Minister to address very serious issues, other than just playing politics with the economy. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to repeat again that in the pastoral areas, we nearly lost over 90 per cent of our livestock. Those people are now purely dependant on relief food. That is a very dangerous situation. It is a crisis. During this dry spell, you can actually see how it has affected the people on the ground. Children are not going to secondary schools in those areas. It is high time the Government looked into ways and means of waiving fees in the pastoral areas. There is no way you can give relief food to a parent and then expect that parent to pay fees. How does that happen? It is completely illogical! Unless they sell the relief food that they get and pay school fees. You starve and pay fees. So, it is important for the Government to seriously address that problem. It can give grants to those schools. What is happening in Turkana has been reported in the Press. It is also happening is all other pastoral areas. It is very dangerous. The Minister has not addressed the issue of restocking for those pastoralists. That is what they know best. They cannot do anything else. So, the first emergency measure that ought to have been taken, and which should have been considered in the Budget, was to find ways and means of restocking for those pastoralists. That is very critical. Once they have the minimum, they can pick up from there. June 19, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1875 Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the pastoralists are very poor. Those are not pockets! They are zones. They are yellow zones because, continuously, those fundamental issues have not been addressed. The issue of slaughter houses-- Even the few livestock they are able to sell, they have to transport them all the way to Dagoretti and Kenya Meat Commission (KMC). If those slaughter houses were put up in those areas, it would have been better. They are not very costly. We can afford to put them up. This is a Kshs700 billion Budget. What would it cost to put up a slaughter house in Isiolo, Wajir and Garissa, so that we could stop transporting live animals from those areas? It does not add any value to transport livestock. If anybody was concerned about those areas, those are the issues that we need to fundamentally address. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}