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{
    "id": 239674,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/239674/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 209,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Sambu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 137,
        "legal_name": "Alfred B. Wekesa Sambu",
        "slug": "alfred-sambu"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I requested that I quote in Kiswahili because I thought I would portray the message better. I have, however, delivered the message. Our people are starving, yet the waters that flow to the northern part of Africa originate from our country. We are told that some nations made declarations to go to war if something went wrong with the rivers. If you go to the northern Rift Valley now, you will find that three people were killed because they were found felling trees in the forest. That is lack of knowledge. We want to generate more water, yet some of us cannot allow people to carry out afforestation. This Government has to wake up. I know the previous one was doing nothing about it, but that does not mean that we have to go on in the same way. We should not follow blindly what others were doing. We have to utilise our water to produce food for our people. We have to construct dams along the rivers which flow into Lake Victoria. Year in year out, people living in the Nyando plains and Funyula are afflicted by floods, and yet we could use this water to build dams on the slopes of Rift Valley, which would even generate power. We should have dams which can then be used to store water, which can then be used to produce more rice in the Western plains. The same thing should be done on rivers that flow into the Indian Ocean. But we only wait until people start starving or are displaced by floods and then cry out to western donors for food. It is a pity because a little lack of knowledge causes all those problems. It is not the lack of money. As the previous hon. Member said, Kshs400 million was used on five or six people. We really have to ask ourselves questions. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if we want to have this Bill, we will have to repeal some Acts in this House. At the moment, farmers in maize and wheat producing areas sell their produce to the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB). I would be glad if Government Ministers hear this. Farmers buy fertilizer using cash."
}