Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 228901,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/228901/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 175,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Eng. Nyamunga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 341,
        "legal_name": "Eric Opon Nyamunga",
        "slug": "eric-nyamunga"
    },
    "content": "touts, therefore, they are now protecting themselves? That should not be allowed. I am asking the Government department that is concerned with this to take action against the Mungiki . If we intend to convert our country into a newly industrialised nation by the year 2030 as the March 28, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 179 President said, then we should tackle the problem of insecurity. The Government has the capacity to do that. Let us not give the public the bad impression that Mungiki is being supported by the Government and that, that is how they are able to terrorise the innocent public and go scot free. Something needs to be done very urgently so that we restore security in those areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the President mentioned something about fishing. After agriculture and tourism, fishery is probably the third foreign exchange earner. At the same time, fishermen are some of the poorest people in this country. If you look at the poverty index in areas where fishermen are found along Lake Victoria like Gwasi or Rangwe, you will find that people in those areas are very, very poor. The reason for this is that the infrastructure around the lake is in such a bad state and those who go to collect the fish exploit the fishermen. They go there late in the evening when the fishermen are desperate so that they end up selling the fish at a very low price because they do not have cold rooms to keep the fish. The fishermen do not get a good price for the fish that they catch from the lake. Therefore, those areas have remained poor. Infrastructure should be improved around the lake. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the President said that about 20 landing beaches have been connected, but what is 20 when you consider the great number that is there? How about the road network around the lake? We need to get those roads tarmacked and have electricity around the lake so that we do not only have fish as a product in that area, but we can also have beach resorts. These two can support the economy around the lake. The beaches can support the western circuit tourism and the fish industry so that the people around the lake can enjoy the economic growth that we are talking about. Otherwise, right now fishermen are some of the poorest communities in this country. Agriculture is the backbone of the economy of this country, but I wonder whether we are paying enough attention to it. For example, if we take the case of sugar-cane, by March this year, Kenyans will be free to import any amount of sugar from COMESA areas. The problem we have in the sugar sector is that we had under-investment. In countries like Malawi, table sugar is a by- product so they are able to sell it cheaply because their factories produce many products from the sugar-cane crop. They produce fertilizer, electricity, table sugar and industrial sugar. To the majority of sugar factories in this country, the main product of the sugar-cane crop is table sugar. How will it compete with sugar from these other countries where it is considered a by-product? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I believe the time has come for us to do something so that our sugar can compete with that from the rest of the world. Otherwise, we shall have a situation where our sugar industry will be \"dead\" after March, 2008. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, only 20 per cent of this country has the capacity to produce crops from --- The weather pattern has changed and it is now very unreliable. We need to do much more in the irrigation sector. We need to allocate more money so that the 20 per cent can be irrigated properly and we can have reliable crop production in this country. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}