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{
    "id": 328664,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/328664/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 367,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Bett",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Roads",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 157,
        "legal_name": "Franklin Kipng'etich Bett",
        "slug": "franklin-bett"
    },
    "content": " Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I rise to support this Bill. I believe this Bill is long overdue because of what has been happening to us either here in Kenya or outside Kenya because we relate to our neighbours in East Africa. While supporting this Bill, I would also want the Minister to consider very strongly having consultations with other relevant Ministries in order for research funds to be appropriately allocated to the institution so that as and when they find a situation that is threatening, they should be able to do their own research, survey, analysis and assessment of the threatening situation without necessarily relying on funds which may not have already been voted for. I would want to urge the Ministry to also consider linking up KEPHIS to other international institutions to strengthen themselves. This way, they can undertake their role fully and establish relations with other institutions in the world for purposes of standardizing their activities. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, this will also be very useful in matters of disease control more so, in plants. I am saying this with a lot of agony when I come to think of what has happened to us in the South Rift where the maize crop for this particular financial year has failed completely due to a situation which I understand is being attended to by the Ministry. I would want to urge the Minister to put in more effort. This is because what seems to have been explained to the people is that the soil is bad. We were wondering how the soil for South Rift is not taking this particular seed and yet elsewhere it is being accepted. We have tended to believe it is something to do with seed infection. Hence I go back to the issue of research and the ability to investigate such situations. Finally, this will be a very clear avenue for us to obviate unscrupulous traders in seeds and fertilizers who are trafficking certain seeds across the border from Uganda to Kenya, from Tanzania to Kenya and vice versa. This law, I believe will provide control measures which will assist in disease control. A disease which may be noticeable in Kenya, Tanzania or Uganda would be then checked at the border. So, this law is quite urgent and, more so, as we go towards another planting season and especially those of us who are now terrified as a result of the problem that we have faced in the production of maize. With those remarks, I beg to support the Bill."
}