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{
    "id": 246577,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/246577/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 212,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Capt. Nakitare",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 348,
        "legal_name": "Davis Wafula Nakitare",
        "slug": "davis-nakitare"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for allowing me to support the Budget that was well framed. The highlight of the Budget was meant to confuse us so that we understand that our taxes are what we will use and that donors' money will be supplementary. It is obvious that the Budget did not reflect the true picture of Kenya. Kenya is an agricultural country, and yet very little has been done towards streamlining our land policy. We are supposed to be growing food for ourselves. However, we have raised the prices of fuel as a way of hiding the obvious lower cost of paying for road licences. It will be more costly now for a farmer to produce a bag of maize. With the kind of prices we are seeing now, a litre of diesel going for Kshs78, that means if you want to plough an acre of land, the fuel, labour and other expenditures will not allow you to make any profits. Agriculture has been killed and it will be devastating for this country. There is going to be devastation in this country, if we do not have good food policies. In the Budget, nothing was mentioned about sustainable agriculture for small-scale farmers. Those are the sources of food production. Sometimes it looks like Kenya is divided into two. We believe that people in the rural areas are in one world, and those who live in cities and other urban centres June 20, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1467 are in a different world! Yet, those who live in cities and urban centres depend on the sweat of small-scale farmers. When shall we do without synthetic fertilisers? If we are increasing our tax revenue by increasing the price of fuel, that is the coldest cold that goes right into a bone that a Kenyan is going to feel. We are not going to feel it now. But as from January; that is the time when farmers buy fuel to plough--- Labour is not going to be conducive to produce food. So, the question is: How is Kenya going to evade starvation in this world? We are turning our arable land into arid land. We have no principles in farming. We are only praising ourselves and those in market places. It is very injurious for the Minister to look at a white-collar job and say: \"This is a well-done job! We have done it very well and, therefore, our Budget reflects the people's wishes!\" It is a wishful wish. Look at the Kshs400 million that was set aside to settle the people in Likia! What about Trans Nzoia, where the tribal clashes started? My people still live on the road-sides. Nothing has been said about Trans Nzoia. We want our people to live like others in this country. My people in Trans Nzoia must be settled!"
}