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{
    "id": 283451,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/283451/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 530,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mrs. Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": "I would also want to indicate that one of the things that I would have hoped that the Committee spoke a lot about is the issue of diversification. I know that it is in the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) but I want to note, for instance, that if I come from a predominantly fishing community and when the Government puts in money for creating fish ponds, the focus was not in fishing communities and yet the lake is not accessible to everybody contrary to what everybody might believe. It is only accessible predominantly to middle men. Many of the ordinary poor Kenyans are no longer able to fish because the people with superior fishing gadgets have gone into the lake and are dominating it and the people with poorer and lower quality gadgets are excluded. Indeed, the poorer fishermen are always harassed because they have fishing nets where the Government does not allow and so the only people who can afford are the persons who can buy the more superior fishing gadgets. I would have loved, therefore, that in diversification, we do not just look at diversifying fishing into none fishing communities when we are not bringing, for instance, irrigation into the predominantly fishing communities. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, what is the equity that we are working around? If we are taking fishing to Meru, Embu and to other areas that ordinarily do not fish what are we concurrently doing to those fishing communities to improve their lot? This is because as we know, Lake Victoria is currently chocked with hyacinth and a whole lot of other things so that fishing again, as I have said, really the local people are not in charge of it. It is the middlemen who are in charge and so the fish ponds should equally be put in fishing areas. Moreover, we should not rely on rain fed agriculture especially in areas where we come from which are almost semi-desert and we should, therefore, focus and put a lot of emphasis on irrigation. Finally, I want to speak on the issue of the Equalization Fund. On this issue, I want to indicate that I regret---"
}