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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I would like to second this Motion. I will explain to hon. Members why some of these issues have been overtaken by events. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to give hon. Members some background about Yala Swamp. In the early 1970s about 1977, the Japanese embarked on some research and investigations and they came up with an issue that Yala Swamp which is at the end of Yala River could be used for feeding Kenya as a nation. They also said that if the water of Sondu Miriu River could be dammed, it could be used for irrigation and that Nyanza would be the backbone for feeding this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, at that time, the newly-appointed Managing Director of that company was Prof. D.P.S Osao. He had just come from Ethiopia and he embarked on the infrastructure. Unfortunately, he was only in office for a very short while because he was a steadfast person and they appointed a new Managing Director who I do not want to mention because he is now deceased. There was mismanagement within the organisation and Kshs300 million which was ploughed into that investment went to waste. The project was abandoned by the Government which was under LBDA at the time. The houses were condemned and you can imagine what a project which was abandoned from that time until now looks like. The community had now gone in and were ploughing only 200 acres. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are very fortunate that the NARC Government came into place at the time and there was a huge demand for investment and Dominion Farms Limited looked at it and saw that this was a country that they would like to invest in. I would like to inform hon. Members that a lot of investors want to come to Third World countries because their infrastructures are now congested and they have found that if they came and invested in developing countries, they would be able to improve the food security for the world because we are now becoming more of a global village. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is no point in Kenya importing rice from other countries like Vietnam. We have the capacity to produce our own rice and other commodities for our people. Dominion Farms Limited came into the country at a time when we did not have a system of investment, especially in the agricultural sector. So, its proprietors faced a lot of problems. We are lucky that the owner of that company was patient. He had to fly five times from the United States of America (USA) to Kenya, to have the process started. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if the proprietor of that company was the type of person that gets discouraged quickly, he would have stopped pursuing the matter after his first visit to this country. You know, it costs money for one to travel all the way from the USA to Kenya in pursuit of business deals. He was patient. He took his time. We would like to thank him for having looked at Kenya in terms of investment. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Dominion Farms Limited has invested Kshs2.3 billion. If you want to know that this investor is serious, you should consider the fact that at the time of his investment, he did not hire equipment. He brought in his own equipment worth Kshs400 million. It was unfortunate that, at that time, Ministers were not aware of what was happening in their Ministries. He had the approval of all the relevant Ministries. He held talks with the various Permanent Secretaries, with whom he signed documents. The Ministers were subsequently shocked that equipment worth Kshs400 million was at the Port of Mombasa, destined for Nyanza Province. That was when they took him seriously. For the first time in the history of Kenya, three Ministers signed one letter, stopping the project, as opposed to previous times when each Ministry would issue its own opinion on such a matter. The investor was very concerned. He November 22, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3847 went and saw the Head of State. We thank the Head of State for having allowed him to continue with his investment. That is why Dominion Farms Limited is now in action. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to report to this House that when I was elected to this House, the poverty level in my constituency was 85 per cent. Three years down the line, it has dropped to 62 per cent. I would also like to tell this House how that investment is benefiting the people of Alego Usonga. Today, an acre of land is going for Kshs45,000. At the time of my election to Parliament, an acre was going for Kshs15,000. So, you can see what that investment has done to the value of land in that area. Before Dominion Farms Limited moved into that area, labourers were being paid Kshs50 per day. Today, they are being paid Kshs150. Even the value of property in that area has increased many folds. Previously, a one bedroom house was being rented at Kshs150 per month. Today, a one bedroom house is being rented at Kshs1,000. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, therefore, we should encourage investment. The Government should invite people to come and invest in the agricultural sector. We should have a check-list of standard conditions with which a foreigner will have to comply with before he is allowed to invest in Kenya. A would-be investor should be told about those conditions. He will then only have to go through a check-list to see whether he complies. If he does, we allow him to come and invest. I know that the wetlands in this country have been very much interfered with. Another issue that needs to be addressed is that when the LBDA took over the project, land was taken from over 150 people and they were never paid their money. That was the responsibility of the LBDA at that time, when the Government took over the project. So, the people whose land was taken by the LBDA then have seen Dominion Farms Limited coming and they think they can now cash in. I would like to tell the House that it was not the responsibility of the investor to pay those people but rather, that of the Government. The Government took over the project and handed it to the LBDA but the LBDA did not pay people for their land. So, these are some of the concerns that need to be addressed. I would like to report to this House that my constituency was a big importer of maize from Kitale, where Capt. Nakitare comes from. Many lorry loads of maize used to be taken to my constituency from Kitale. Today, we are exporters of maize. In the last season, we produced 10,000 bags of maize, of which 3,000 were given to the community as goodwill from the investor. We now have silos. We are now improving the food security of that area. Currently, there are 250 acres of land under rice. We know that, today, there is a shortage of rice in the world market. We plan to expand this field by 70 acres in the next season. We will increase the acreage until we get to 15,000 acres of rice. You can imagine that we will then not have to import rice from Pakistan. As a country, we will be saving foreign exchange. I would also like to inform the House that this investor is going to use modern technology. Right now, we have an extension of farmers, who get paid by this company within a day at Kshs21 for every kilogramme of cotton. Also, the company pays farmers Kshs28 for a kilogramme of soya beans. So, the community around the Dominion Farms Limited is now finding ways of getting income by supplying this company with cotton and soya beans. The company will soon buy even fish. The investor has a market in Europe, where he will get 10 Euros per kilogramme. That is the equivalent of about Kshs1,000 per kilogramme. If Kisumu Airport is upgraded to international status, we will be able to export fish to Amsterdam, where a kilogramme can fetch almost 10 Euros on the shelves. The Dominion Farms Limited has now put up a rice mill. Cotton farming has been revived. The ginnery is operational. The roads in my constituency are now being improved. He is grading the roads, as a corporate social responsibility. He has developed three schools. The health centre, which is close by and it is called Atuoro, has now been improved. Electric power has now reached the health centre as it goes to the company's premises. I would like to thank the Government for 3848 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 22, 2006 providing some money towards the cost of extending the electric power line to that area. The investor put in Kshs11.5 million and the Government supplemented with Kshs8 million for that purpose. By next month, electricity will reach the company's premises and the health centre nearby. So, we are seeing some seriousness on the part of the Government. Two weeks ago, the Minister for Water and Irrigation visited the constituency, looked at the project and was really impressed by what was going on. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Regional Development Authorities was there with his team. They went and looked at the project, and they were quite impressed with what they saw. The investor is using up to scratch modern technology. He has also employed experts from all over the world, to assist us with technology, which we might not have been having in the past. That farm is supposed to be one of the best mechanised farms in Africa. I think the Government should take credit for having allowed this investor to come in and be able to have that facility in our country. The investor also recently tendered for a partnership rice project with the Tana and Athi River Development Authority (TARDA). He wants to be amongst those to be considered to invest in that project. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}