Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 381639,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/381639/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 136,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Haji",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 26,
        "legal_name": "Yusuf Mohammed Haji",
        "slug": "yusuf-haji"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, first and foremost, I want to wish my colleagues in the Senate and in Kenya generally a very good month of Ramadhan, good health to all of them and prosperous time. From the outset, I want to totally disagree with my brother from Kirinyaga County that livestock industry is better now than it used to be long ago. Other than in the last few years when Sen. (Dr.) Mohamed Kuti was the Minister for Livestock, the livestock industry has gone down the drain. During the colonial time, there was very strict reinforcement of movement of livestock and in that manner, it was possible to control diseases. Right now, you will find that movement of livestock from one area to another is so prevalent that diseases are all over. Also during the colonial time, we used to have Livestock Marketing Board (LMB) whose job was to buy livestock from farmers and keep them in holding grounds, inoculate them, keep them for three months, take the blood samples, examine for any disease, treat them and then allow them to move to the market. During the colonial times, both the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) in Athi River and KMC, Mombasa, used to operate daily and livestock used to be brought to those industries. At the moment, these industries have collapsed. The one in Mombasa has been completely shut down and it is not operating. As a young man, I remember that my father was a stock trader. He would take cattle to Lamu to a holding ground, where they could be held for three months and after being found to be disease free, they would be driven to Lamu. There used to be a ship called Bonanza which could take them from Lamu to other countries, but all these things are dead now. Therefore, I want to agree with my brother here that there is need for this Government at this time to do better than it has done before. I was in the Cabinet with Sen. (Dr.) Kuti and we used to cry for money to buy livestock during droughts and we could not even raise what we wanted but when it comes to agriculture, there is always plenty of money. Even AFC loans were written off. The farmers would take loans from AFC to plant wheat and if the harvest was not good, the loans were written off. That is what happened. Therefore, to be able to help people whose livelihood depends on livestock, there is need for the Government to, first and foremost, enforce livestock movement and also ensure that there are livestock disease free zones all over the country. Madam Temporary Speaker, people have suffered greatly because even the size of animals has changed. Cattle used to be very big but nowadays, they are as small as donkeys because of in-breeding. We should put measures in place to improve the rearing of livestock so that we have a better breed than we have right now. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}