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{
    "id": 381578,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/381578/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 75,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "legislation and policies, over the years, the pastoral areas or the livestock Industry has been forgotten. As previous speakers have said, we always say that we are going to create job opportunities for Kenyans. I believe that improving livestock markets is really important as this will create jobs for the youth and also the people living in pastoral areas. As Sen. Wetangula has just said, pastoral communities do not access markets. In any case, the infrastructure is not there for them to access the markets. You will find that sometimes pastoralists actually trek with their animals all the way from Moyale to sell them in Wajir, Nanyuki or somewhere else. By the time they reach those markets, the animals have lost so many kilogrammes. They actually end up selling them at throw away prices. So, clearly, apart from creating disease free zones, we also need to look at other aspects that affect the livestock industry. Secondly, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, you will find that the international market is actually not penetrated or accessed by the pastoralist communities. You will find people coming from other countries or people who are not even pastoralists themselves accessing the international markets, yet the pastoralists themselves do not even know that international markets exist. So, it is really important to expose these pastoralist communities or the people who are dealing with the livestock industry to the international markets, so that they can sell their animals at a worthy price and also create jobs for them. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, you will find that whenever drought strikes, most of the pastoralist communities lose their animals. People having hundreds and thousands of livestock, end up losing them. They become poor over night. The children of pastoral communities are unable to go to school simply because they are losing their animals. So, the Government actually needs to put more weight and seriousness into the livestock industry. We need to have that in place so that it can help the pastoralist communities. Lastly, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we always run around whenever there are disasters or whenever there are droughts, like what happened I think two years ago when animals were being bought at almost nothing from pastoral communities and dumped at the KMC. We need to have proper planning in place. We do not have to run around only when there are disasters; proper planning will help us to take care of our animals and also to improve the economy of those particular communities. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those many remarks, I beg to support the Motion."
}