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{
    "id": 274931,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/274931/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 525,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Ethuro",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 158,
        "legal_name": "Ekwee David Ethuro",
        "slug": "ekwee-ethuro"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I also rise to support this particular Motion by hon. Namwamba. Hon. Namwamba is very useful when it comes to farmers. I hope he will also become useful when it comes to politics. You may be wondering why I am contributing to the dairy matters when I have nothing to show that I have some milk, but this is good for the Kenyan farmer. This Motion is bringing before this House a serious indictment of a Government that took assets belonging to the farmers, appropriated them in some other KCC. We got another Government that took it from them and it is now taking it back to the rightful original owners. So, we want to thank the Government and the Minister for Co-operative Development and Marketing for taking back the KCC to the farmers. Indeed, the request by this Motion is that those farmers who contributed to the assets of that company should be given the first priority in terms of the privatization programme. This is the way it should be. This ought to be the case because this is not just another company whose shares we are going to float out there in the market. The real shareholders of the company are the dairy farmers, of course, allowing a few shares for pastoralists like me who may also want to participate in the largess of the dairy farming community. I also want to speak to the point that until this Motion is carried, until the mediation committee that has been proposed here is in place and concludes its work, the privatization programme must not proceed. This is a commitment that the Minister must make very clear to this House when responding, so that they do not come and tell us that we were debating when they were making arrangements. The Government must be informed of what is happening in the House, so that they take the appropriate steps. You can see the interest of the Members, including the Front Bench. This should be the case. As we determine, the key words to me here are “to guarantee protection” to ensure that farmers do not permanently lose their stake in the dairy industry and in the KCC. There are some suggestions that for us to make this work, the Constitution has empowered the Government to ensure that every Kenyan is entitled to food and shelter. When you have a reliable source of income which this shareholding right of the farmers in the New KCC will provide, the Kenyan citizenry, especially the peasantry, is assured of a certain decent income. It will go a long way in fulfilling not only the constitutional requirement, but also the Millennium Development Goals that this country has committed itself to. So, this is a Motion that we all want to support. We really want to encourage the Government to adopt this Motion in total and act with speed to ensure that this Motion is implemented. It should not wait for us to come back to the Floor to remind it of the implementation just in case it has forgotten. That is because the Government seems of late to have lost a bit of memory. But we also have the Implementation Committee that ensures that every Motion which is passed in this House must be implemented within two months, or else, we will take drastic actions on you especially when it comes to farmers, knowing that this is a general election year."
}