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"content": "beef products in this continent. They are the only country in Africa that exports beef to the European Union without any restrictions. It is also the only country that I know, perhaps, apart from South Africa, that is 100 per cent disease-free. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the late 1950s, Australia imported from Kenya a pedigree grass known as Boma Rhodes for development of their livestock. Today, Kenya imports Boma Rhodes from Australia. That is how we have gone. The law has always been there. If you look at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Act, 2013, in the Second Schedule, it lists a whole lot of research institutes that have been there all these years. There is the Livestock Research Institute, Forest and Environment Research Institute, Water Resource Management Research Institute, Arid and Range Lands Research Institute, Genetic Resource Research Institute, Beef Research Institute, Dairy Research Institute, Non-ruminant Research Institute, Sheep and Goat Research Institute, Veterinary Science Research Institute, Wildlife Research Institute and so on. You heard the distinguished Senator for Nyandarua mention about wildlife spreading diseases to livestock. Botswana has one of the largest wildlife establishments. The famous Okavango Delta is in Botswana, with a bounty of livestock, but it has not affected the country in its quest to be a disease free zone. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the last Parliament, when we were meeting the requirements of the new Constitution and amalgamating laws in land and agriculture, we introduced an Agricultural, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Authority Bill. The then Minister for Livestock, the distinguished Senator, I think, for Isiolo, Sen. (Dr.) Kuti, for no reason at all created such a rumpus until he removed livestock from the process. We ended up with no legislation on livestock under the new Constitution. He left office without ever bringing any law despite the hullabaloo that he had raised. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Sen. (Prof.) Lonyangapuo can even go further; instead of asking for policies which exist, I want to urge him to seek advice and bring a Livestock Bill that has to meet the requirements of the new Constitution. I have checked with the laws we passed. We passed the Agricultural Fisheries and Food Authority Act. If you look at the description, it says that it deals with everything, excluding livestock, courtesy of Sen. (Dr.) Kuti. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, livestock generates a lot of revenue for this country. At some point, I am on record as having opposed the export of live animals from Kenya because many countries like Botswana and South Africa do not export live animals. They add value to them. What was happening in the last two or three years is that we were exporting live animals with a lot of fanfare. You would see a Minister and a Permanent Secretary in Mombasa flagging off our animals entering a ship. They were taken to Mauritius where they are slaughtered, value added and exported to the Middle East. We can do this ourselves. That is why we have the KMC both in Nairobi and in Mombasa. The last Government of President Kibaki built several abattoirs in Wajir, Turkana and in many other places. What we must do is to move away from the point that Sen. Musila mentioned. The beginning of the destruction of our livestock industry, among other things, was the World Bank (WB) when they walked into Kenya and said “The Government has no business running cattle dips, vaccinations, marketing boards, this and that.” The Government moved out of this courtesy of the WB. What happened after that? Artificial 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."
}