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{
    "id": 239691,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/239691/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 226,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Maj-Gen. Nkaisserry",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 192,
        "legal_name": "Joseph Kasaine Ole Nkaissery",
        "slug": "joseph-nkaissery"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute on this very important Motion. I would like to thank the Mover, hon. Prof. Oniang'o, for bringing this very important Motion to the House. Our country is faced with drought every year. We need to have had a policy or a strategy on how to tackle this menace. For the last 40 years, we have not come up with a food security strategy. This is a critical issue. I would like the Minister to listen very keenly. It is very sad for our country to keep on begging for food. The issue of dependency syndrome must cease. Since we have a Minister for Special Programmes who comes from an area which suffers a persistent problem of drought, he needs to listen very carefully, so that he can report to the Cabinet the message from our people. We do not want to depend on food donations year in, year out. We need to have a strategy to address the problem of water shortage. We should harvest rain water, construct dams and conserve our rivers, so that we can start irrigation schemes. What August 2, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2531 happened to the National Irrigation Board? We need to look at these issues in order to come up with a national food security strategy. The National Cereals and Produce Board has collapsed. We keep seeing the Minister running around begging for food. The Office of the President is the one that distributes famine relief food. How much money has the Government used for the last three years to feed Kenyans? That money could have been used to conserve water for irrigation. For example, if we had constructed dams along Athi River, we could have started irrigation schemes in Kajiado District. If we had constructed dykes, we could have prevented rain water from going down to the Indian Ocean. The Government needs to look into this strategy. If dams were constructed along the Tana River, we can do some irrigation in North Eastern Province. We should use the billions of shillings that we use to buy famine relief food to construct dykes along the River Tana. The Government needs to put this strategy in place, so that most of our water does not go to waste. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, 70 per cent of Kenya is arid land. We have plenty of livestock. How many cattle, sheep and goats perished during the last drought? This Government should come forward and tell Kenyans that we have lost so many animals. If we had sold the animals, we could have saved a lot of money, which could have been used to conserve water and start irrigation schemes. Surprisingly, while we were importing food, our farmers in the Northern Rift had so much food in their stores and the Government avoided buying it because it wanted to import maize through corrupt means. The Government continues to import food using our meagre resources. This leaves our farmers' produce to rot in the stores. This is shameful. If this Bill is brought to the House and passed, we will be able to tackle the issue of food security in our country. With regard to the sugar sector, we import sugar while sugar-cane is rotting in our farms. This is because we do not have a food security policy. This is very critical. Every financial year, we put a reserve of over Kshs1 billion into the kitty of the Ministry of Agriculture. The Minister for Agriculture will come here and say that he has Kshs1 billion for food reserve. I have never seen that money being used. We always want to get money from the donor community to support us during drought. There is corruption here. Once this Bill is passed, this problem will be solved."
}