Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 229226,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/229226/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 109,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kosgey",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 177,
        "legal_name": "Henry Kiprono Kosgey",
        "slug": "henry-kosgey"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I represent a rural constituency. One of the things that we are told quite often in Presidential Speeches is that the economy is growing and Kenyans are well off. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I even heard the Minister for Finance say that the faces of Kenyans are shining. We cannot dispute statistics. Maybe the Kenyan economy is growing. I am not a statistician, but I know that people in the rural, agricultural and in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) of this country are wallowing in poverty. They are suffering to a point that it makes a mockery of the statements that the Government is making that they are doing well while they are poor. When we looked at the poverty index in this country, slightly more than ten years ago, we averaged it at 42 per cent. We moved to 52 per cent and now, we are at 56 per cent. In certain regions of our country, the poverty index is as high as 80 per cent. We should speak the truth and say that there is a certain section of our economy which is growing, but 90 per cent of our people are wallowing in poverty. This is the truth. We read in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report that Kenya has the most unequal distribution of income in the world where incomes range from as low as zero and as high as Kshs3 million. The Government should stop chest-thumping that the economy is growing. As far as rural and urban slum areas are concerned, poverty is reigning and is rampant. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the President touched on agricultural production. I think we should define agricultural production not just merely by increase in quantities. Farmers are not there just because they want to farm, but to make profit. I can speak and say that farmers are not making any profit because of the high production costs. The prices of fertilizers, diesel and all other farm implements have doubled. If you look at the cereals such as maize and wheat and dairy farmers, you will find that their net income is lower than what it was four years. That is a fact. Therefore, what we are being told is not true. The other day, I saw people who do not even own a single cow chest-thumping and saying that the dairy farmers are being paid very well. How do they know? For example, in Lessos Collection Centre, farmers deliver milk every alternate day because the milk is ferried to Sotik. Is it March 27, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 123 true that, that person in Lessos is making any profit if he is delivering milk every alternate day? That happens to farmers in Kapsabet, Ainabkoi, and even in Eldoret. This is because milk is ferried everyday all the way from Eldoret to Sotik. It is about time that the Government helped the New Kenya Co-operative Creameries to revive the factory at Eldoret. This factory was cannibalised and the parts were taken to go and repair the factory in Sotik."
}