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{
    "id": 33649,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/33649/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 405,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Eng. Maina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 75,
        "legal_name": "Ephraim Mwangi Maina",
        "slug": "ephraim-maina"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Motion. Let me say that a country that wants to talk of its sovereignty has to start with being able, at worst, to feed itself. It is a great shame that this country should be in this situation at all. This is not a situation resulting from any natural calamity. This is a situation caused as a result of poor planning and our priorities being upside down. I may wish to remind this House that after Independence, one time Kenya had to import yellow maize. The then President Kenyatta stood and told the country: “I will ensure that my people will never eat yellow maize”. People were not dying but he felt insulted that Kenya had imported yellow maize. I want to say in very simple terms that he challenged the then agricultural department which came up with something called GMR. The following year the Standard newspaper had the headline that Kenya had a bumper harvest. From then on, Kenya never again looked back during his rule. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are talking of Vision 2030 and the new Constitution which are just papers. It is high time this country sat down, put plans in order and moved along to implement those plans. This should start with the basics of a nation. The famine in this country touches on everybody. Even in Central Province today, there are areas where people have no food to eat. This sometimes is not because of lack of food but because the cost of living is beyond the ordinary man. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the most profitable business to do today in Kenya is that of running funeral homes, making coffins and ferrying dead people because the people of Kenya are living ugly lives. I wish the Government could wake up and come up with policies--- As the late President Kenyatta did with his Government; he made sure we did not look back. This country has no real desert. One time, we invited some Israelis to come here and advise us on farming and irrigation. After they went round, they told us that they had not seen any desert."
}