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{
    "id": 236961,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/236961/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 242,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 193,
        "legal_name": "Peter Anyang' Nyong'o",
        "slug": "peter-nyongo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you go to the Coast, you will find that the people who were in the Government borrowed money from the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) - and we know this - they used the money to buy large tracts of land at the Coast for speculation, never repaid the AFC loan, that corporation collapsed and it can no longer lend money to small-scale farmers. Those people still hold the land they bought at the Coast and squatters have invaded the land. If you tell those people to repay the loans, they will tell you to go and remove the squatters from that land first. We are at an impasse. What are we talking about? I submit to my friends, Mr. Khamisi and Mr. Tarus, that even if they removed those squatters from that land today, they would remain poor if you do not have a good agricultural policy. We saw it in Muhoroni in Thessalia Farm. The Catholics in Thessalia Farm were very good. They allocated land to the Luo squatters who had occupied the land for many years, I went to see them and found that they are living the same way they lived in the 1970s. Those people have not changed their mode of life to this very day, precisely, because although they are squatting on that land, the agricultural policy which should help them develop has never changed. When the Opposition threatened the Moi Government that it would take over, that Government introduced the land clashes. The squatters in Thessalia Farm were replaced by Kalenjin squatters. The Luos November 1, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3301 settled on a small piece of land where they started dying because it was too small to support their families. We are complicating our problems everyday. We should understand in this day and age that whether you are a squatter, a small-scale farmer, a large-scale farmer or flower farmer, like the ones we see in Naivasha, without a good agricultural policy and taxation policy, you will not succeed. Even the flower farming which was very successful is collapsing. You have seen the complaints of tea growers in the newspapers today. They have realised that with a strong Shilling, they cannot sell their tea overseas and get good money. It does not matter whether they introduced machines or not; tea growing is collapsing. This is because of poor agricultural and fiscal policies. Let us have one thing. Let us realise in this day and age that for agriculture to compete effectively, it must be subsidised by the State by a progressive agricultural policy. What do I mean by \"progressive agricultural policy\"?"
}