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{
    "id": 380319,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/380319/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 105,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Ndiema",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1067,
        "legal_name": "Henry Tiole Ndiema",
        "slug": "henry-tiole-ndiema"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have heard about the policies and tended to blame Sessional Paper No.10 of 1965 for ills that we still experience in the livestock. I do not think that it is right to say so because after that, we have had so many papers, including Vision 2030, which all emphasize and extol the livestock sector, yet the allocations to this sector from our national resources are very meagre. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there was a time that the livestock sector in this country was booming. We were exporting milk and meat, but over the years, our performance has diminished. We have to look at what went wrong. In so doing, let us look at the threats that exist in the livestock industry. First of all, unless we address the issue of diseases, we shall not grow this sector. This is because the pastoralists continue losing their livestock every year through diseases which can be prevented or treated. But as you know, the veterinary officers have long been redundant in the name of privatization. How many private veterinarians are able to perform private work in the arid and semi-arid areas? The Government must step in and deploy veterinary doctors in those areas. Even training in veterinary medicine in the universities has become a non-lucrative area. We are no longer producing enough veterinarians because they are not being employed. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue that we have to address is rustling. But this is also connected to poverty, arising from less economic attention from the government to those areas. People are rustling because they are no longer earning anything from the livestock sector. We have to look at that. Water is another issue that has been mentioned. I do not need to emphasize that. There is also poor pasture management. There was a time when we had range management in this country. We managed pasture in a way that during the times of drought there was a fallback situation where livestock could graze. It is no longer there because we are subdividing those lands, left and right, as one Senator has said. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue is poor marketing. The Government no longer supports marketing. The Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) was revived, but as you can see, it is always limping with a lot of corruption. The holding grounds that existed previously were grabbed and are no longer there. We need to restart them. Even as we are talking about abattoirs, we have to look at where to locate them. Abattoirs could be best placed where the consumption is; whether it is in Nyeri or in Murang’a, we should set up abattoirs. There was a time I participated in a forum where we asked an investor to put up an abattoir in an ASAL. What happened is that they asked us, “What will we do with the offals or the byproducts?” Because--- 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."
}