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{
    "id": 380296,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/380296/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 82,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "An interesting thing I want to mention is that the consumption of beef, globally, is expanding faster than any other food product. They say that the demand for beef expands by 20 per cent annually in the world. This is due to the largely increasing middle income growth in many parts of the world. When your income increases, you plan to have beef on your table. An interesting thing again is that the only continent in the world that can produce meat today is Africa and probably parts of Australia. The rest of the world seems to have gone into horticulture and manufacturing industries. We have the single opportunity to produce beef whose demand is increasing by 20 per cent annually. African stands this chance, particularly Kenya, where we have 80 per of our land mass capable. When the NARC Government, in 2003, came into power, it came up with a programme called the Economic Recovery and Wealth Creation Strategy. There was a study done where for every shilling invested in the arid and semi arid areas of this country, the Government would get a return of Kshs5 shillings. However, for every shilling that it would invest in the so-called high potential areas – these are no longer high potential – they would make Kshs1. We had an opportunity and the strategy demanded that the Government focused its investments in the arid and semi arid areas because of the high returns. Unfortunately, despite all that, nothing happened in the ten years that the Government was in power. Consequently, because of the neglect of this industry, we have a situation where pastoralist communities, after every two to three years, owing to drought, lose animals. The most significant drought was the one in 2005 where in northern part of Kenya alone lost livestock estimated at the cost of Kshs70 billion. You will remember that there have been subsequent droughts after that. I do not understand how the Government wants us to survive when they are not addressing issues affecting livelihoods. I want to give an example of what I said earlier, that the Government does not address livestock matters. One example is the one I have given. A couple of years ago, the Government set up a Livestock Management Authority (LMA). That authority, a month after the budget was passed, has no idea how much money they will get. This was a matter of creating organisations and not giving them funds. We have the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC). As we speak, the maximum amounts of allocations they get from the Government have never exceeded Kshs150 million. We have heard about the Livestock Enterprise Fund (LEF). The maximum amount that has been allocated to this one does not exceed Kshs150 million. We have the industries and 25 per cent of the population of this country lives in the 80 per cent land mass that depends on those industries. These are the pastoralists communities and yet the amount of money being invested is Kshs150 million. However, when they are discussing about one single write-off of debts for coffee farmers, this comes to Kshs5billion. One single write off for sugar cane farmers can be up to Kshs2 billion. We are not on the same level. The unfortunate thing is that we are missing an opportunity to invest in an area that would expand our GDP significantly. The second example of the neglect, this is current – almost a month ago, the Jubilee Government – I am a Member of it which is unfortunate – forced out 120,000 animals out of a Taita Taveta Ranch. I have to say this because it is sad to belong to a The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}