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"speaker_name": "Mr. M.Y. Haji",
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"legal_name": "Yusuf Mohammed Haji",
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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Motion. Mr. Speaker, Sir, first of all, I would like to thank you for having realised, as our leader, that Members of Parliament are really hardworking people. As you rightly said, Members of Parliament are pall bearers during funerals and they are expected to help their constituents to pay school fees and so forth. Mr. Speaker, Sir, secondly, we do not merely stand here to criticise the Government. It is unfortunate that the Government only sees one side of the hand and not the other. Therefore, we have a responsibility, as Members of Parliament, to say what we expect the Government to do and what it has not done. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is not enough to say that the economy of this country has grown by 6 per cent while people in North Eastern Province and places like Samburu, Turkana and Pokot do not realise any benefit from this growth that the Government is talking about. We know that without communication, there is no country which can claim to have progress. During the rainy season last year, all the roads in North Eastern Province were rendered impassable for more than three months. We know that there are no telephone communications and electricity in that area. The people there are very unfortunate because the same Government which claims that we are progressing had to air-drop food. This was because even the airstrips were not accessible. In my own case, I could not access Ijara by road for three months neither could I access it by using an aeroplane. Mr. Speaker, Sir, one is forced to hire a helicopter which costs over Kshs800,000 and you can only stay in the area for two or three hours. That is not serving the people the it is expected. Mr. Speaker, Sir, people in the North Eastern Province are poorer now than ever before. This is a fact! The Government cannot deny it. This is because last year the people of North Eastern Province lost 70 per cent of their livestock. This year alone, we lost 113 people and many of our livestock to Rift Valley Fever (RVF). We have every right to say that the Government is sleeping. Way back in September, 2005, our Government was warned by the American Government of the outbreak of the RVF in Kenya. In Ijara Constituency, for example, blood 74 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 22, 2007 samples were taken from 138 people before the outbreak of the RVF. Out of this, ten per cent were positive for RVF. Similarly, blood samples of over 1,000 head of cattle and goats were taken. The result showed that they had symptoms of the RVF. Why did the Government not inoculate the animals before they died and we lost 138 people?"
}