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"id": 234403,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Oloo-Aringo",
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"legal_name": "Peter Oloo Aringo",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move the following Motion:- THAT, whereas the National Assembly approved a resolution calling on the Government to reclaim the Yala Swamp and to implement irrigated farming to increase food production and to promote commercial farming in the area and being aware that the Government, through the Lake Basin Development Authority, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Dominion Farms Limited for the development of the Yala Swamp; this House urges the Government to set up a technical committee of experts to investigate and report on the extent of the implementation of this project and to recommend an action plan on how the project 3682 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 15, 2006 can be expanded in Siaya, Bondo, and Busia; and further that the report of the findings of the technical committee be tabled in the House within six months. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Motion highlights the role of Parliament in initiating public policy. I will start by congratulating Mr. G.G. Kariuki and all those who have debated the fate of the squatters. That is our role; to initiate public policy, particularly where the Government has not done so. The House, therefore, approved the National Food Policy for this country, to promote self-sufficiency in food production and encourage our people to produce surplus food for export. In other words, we wanted to turn this country into a green revolution. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Motion, therefore, will give hon. Members an opportunity, not only to debate about the Yala Swamp and the environment of that region, but also to highlight the integration of irrigation policy in our National Food Policy. My argument is that no food policy can be complete without an integrated irrigation policy. This country is endowed with a lot of surface and ground water. One-third of this country has adequate rain water. But, unfortunately, we do not have a clear policy on how to integrate the use of water for food production. We have separated irrigation from food production as if they are not one and the same thing. What this Motion is calling for is the integration of irrigation in the food policy to produce self-sufficiency in the food production. Yala Swamp is just one example. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Motion, therefore, calls for an action plan to promote commercial farming in the country. I want to emphasize that it supports the investment by the Dominion Farms Limited in Yala Swamp, as a good example of how to integrate food and irrigation policy, so that we can maximise our production of food for this country. That is a noble objective. That is what we should be debating. That is where the Government must lead. But when it fails to do so, the Members of Parliament must take the initiative and lead. This is what makes this Parliament be particularly different from the previous ones. We are not saying that only the Government can do it. The Government has the first opportunity to do it. But where it does not, we, as Back-benchers, must take the initiative and do it. We must save our people from poverty because it is still the biggest problem in Kenya today. Poverty is killing more people than the HIV/AIDS pandemic, malaria and tuberculosis. This is because all these are opportunistic diseases. If people had nutritionally adequate diet, they would be able to resist some of these diseases which are part and parcel of our environment. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are many activities so far which have been demonstrated and can be done when we have irrigated farming. When we have irrigated farming we shall make best use of our fresh water, like Lake Victoria, the second largest fresh water lake in the world. It is irrigating land in Egypt, 6,000 kilometres away. Egypt is 100 per cent dependent on irrigation. We are using less than 5 per cent of Lake Victoria water for irrigation purposes, when 6,000 kilometres near the Mediterranean Sea, the Egyptians are surviving on irrigation. This is because they have integrated their food policy with irrigation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Yala Swamp was a Government project. But in the heyday of \"anti-Nyanza\" and \"anti-Luo,\" it walked out of this project and abandoned it. That is why some of us have been very bitter. Even though we are taxpayers, there has been a deliberate policy to discriminate against parts of Kenya, as if we are foreigners. Our people are not, and will never be foreigners in Kenya. Development must be equally distributed throughout this country."
}