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{
    "id": 267914,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/267914/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 303,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
    "speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 195,
        "legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
        "slug": "raila-odinga"
    },
    "content": " Yes, ok. I know what I am doing. I can be accused of many things but not of being irrelevant. Mr. Speaker, Sir, overall the situation is not as good as we would have wished. The arid and semi arid regions are yet to recover fully from the severe drought of last year. Central, Coast and Eastern regions experienced lower yields with some regions of lower Eastern and Coast experiencing total crop failure. Recent low temperatures resulted in frost in Nyandarua and Nakuru counties. This led to low production of potatoes. The frost also affected parts of Nyeri and its environs. Moreover, floods in Western Kenya, Coast and Upper Eastern regions also affected food production. The country’s maize stocks currently stand at nine million bags. This includes 13.4 million bags that farmers are holding. We must ensure that these stocks are urgently brought to the NCPB and private millers; otherwise, it will be exported as happened last year. We also need to increase the Strategic Grain Reserves (SGR) from 2.3 million bags at present to at least 4 million bags by the end of this financial year. Plans are underway to purchase 1.7 million bags from local farmers. Even if all the current maize stocks are made available to Kenyan consumers with a national consumption of 3 million bags per month these stocks will last only up to the end of July 2012. We need therefore, to open up imports to the private sector. Mr. Speaker, Sir, again because what is available is not sufficient for total local consumption, we are yet to receive the final forecast for the long rain season. Nevertheless, the likelihood of water scarcity is high especially in parts of northern Kenya and south-eastern Kenya. In spite of the good discharge of surface water, the current high heat waves have increased the evaporation. To forestall any disaster the Government is rehabilitating a number of water sources and is procuring 30 water bowsers and storage receptacles. We are reviving the collapsed irrigation schemes. These schemes are projected to produce 673,000 bags of maize and 640,000 bags of rice in the next six months. We are also undertaking the restocking, vaccination, culture rehabilitation and provision of feed supplement to livestock. The Government is continuing with the relief seeds and subsidized fertilizers to the vulnerable households. We are also scaling up provisions of appropriate health and nutrition services to vulnerable groups."
}