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"id": 255910,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/255910/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Kuti",
"speaker_title": "The Minister of State for Youth Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 60,
"legal_name": "Mohammed Abdi Kuti",
"slug": "mohammed-kuti"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. First of all, I would like to congratulate His Excellency the President for the exposition of public policy which is contained in his Address to the House during the State Opening of Parliament. The Speech addressed the real issues facing Kenyans today. I would also like to urge my colleagues on both sides of the House to take heed of His Excellency's Speech when he said that we should refrain from propaganda and a lot of politics and direct our energies to making life better for Kenyans. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to support the President's Speech and thank the Government for the way it handled the last drought. I would like to bring to the attention 23 March, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 85 of this House the fact that many people who were affected by the drought lost about 60 per cent of their livestock. I would also like to bring to the attention of Kenyans and the world that even after that drought, its impact will linger in that region for many more years to come. The economy of that area has actually been destroyed. I would urge the Government and all leaders to pay a lot of attention in terms of helping the affected communities. We should also try other alternative methods of combating or sustaining livelihood in that area such as irrigation. Both these areas, especially North Eastern Province, have River Tana, which when some irrigation was started, enough food was being produced. This enabled them to be self-sufficient in terms of food. The same is true of the areas where Ewaso Nyiro River passes. Sometime in the mid-1980s, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), which is a United Nations (UN) body, started an irrigation scheme along the Ewaso Nyiro River near an area called Gafarsa and Malkadaka. The difference between these two projects is that the canals and most of the work was done manually by the Gafarsa community. To date, Gafarsa is still producing food, although on a very small scale that it is not able to sustain the whole area. I think one of your officers here was a District Officer there and he knows this very well. The Gafarsa community is, up to now, food sufficient, even in this drought. The FAO started a very highly mechanized irrigation project in the next village, and all those machines have now broken down. When FAO officers left, the communities could not maintain those machines. So, if we started thinking strongly and invested in irrigation schemes which rely on gravity, where the canals could bring water to the fields through gravity, and the gates could be managed manually, the food that can be produced in those areas can sustain the communities there. We need not always rush there with relief food. So, we need to reconsider how to keep that area food sufficient. The other aspect we also need to think about is stock control. When it rains now, there will be enough grass and these animals will start mating and a lot of calves will be born. The animals will re-double in population very soon. These animals are sturdy and are able to survive in the drought and can reproduce very quickly. What will happen is that the area will again be over- stocked. The hooves of the animals will degrade the soil and the grass will be depleted very fast. Once again, the whole cycle of animals dying will be repeated. I would actually like to thank the Government for the off-take that they did in the area in trying to salvage the livestock and putting some money in the hands of the communities. Those communities were able to pay school fees using the proceeds from the off-take. In future, we need to look into a system whereby we do not only off-take livestock when there is a drought, but we should create a revolving fund which should, maybe, be given to an institution like the Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC), which will buy the livestock on a regular basis. The agricultural technicians should then come up with a system where we keep the number of livestock which the land can support. Over-stocking should be checked. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to thank the Government for supplying hay to our livestock. This is the first time in history that the communities in North Eastern, upper Eastern, Kajiado, Narok and in all areas which were hit by the drought were all pleasantly surprised to receive hay. Drought has struck these people many times before and animals have died, but they have never in their history received hay. They only used to receive relief food. So, both the livestock and the human beings received food. We would like to thank the Government for supporting the pastoralist communities at this time of need. I think that this is the way the Government should respond to its people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, a referendum is the height of democracy. It is a system where a Government gives a chance to its people to give an opinion on a matter. The Government then respects that opinion. The referendum we held in this country last year actually demonstrated the height of democracy. If there was any winner during that referendum, then it was democracy. 86 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 23 March, 2006 Unfortunately, we politicians; from both sides of the House, used the referendum to achieve our own selfish ends and misled the people of Kenya by turning the referendum polls into an issue of two groups. What actually should have happened is this: After the Draft Constitution of Kenya had been declared ready, we ought to have given time to the people of Kenya to read it without us criss- crossing the country doing campaigns. In fact, some of us started campaigning much earlier before the official appointed time for campaigns. Immediately the referendum date was announced, a lot of rumours started circulating in all corners of the country. The rumours were very much antagonising. Each community was at pains to hear what hurt them most. In my community, for example, there were issues such as allowing men to marry fellow men, abortion and so on. All these issues affected people very much. So, we did not give Kenyans time to read, understand and vote during the referendum in a democratic way. In fact, we hijacked the whole process. It was very unfair of us to hijack a democratic process."
}