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{
    "id": 389931,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/389931/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 147,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Shidiye",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2070,
        "legal_name": "Mohamed Muktar Shidiye",
        "slug": "mohamed-muktar-shidiye"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Motion. We must appreciate the fact that 80 per cent of Kenyans depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Small scale farmers eke out their living through farming by selling farming produce. Majority of Kenyans, about 70 per cent of them live below the poverty line. Most of the farmers living near the Mount Kenya Forest grow food crops and cash crops. We have put more emphasis on wildlife than human beings. Wildlife and tourism has become more important than our farmers. You will realize that the compensation families are given when their people are killed by elephants, lions, or hyenas is so small that most of the people do not get that money at the end of the day. Majority of them look for this money through the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife. More often than not they do not get the money. This is very disheartening. It happens because of bureaucratic red tape, corruption at the Ministries involved and so on. One spends more money looking for that money. Having said that, I know that tourism is an important sector in this economy and we need to grow it. However, traditionally and, in fact, from the late 1970s and 1980s to 1990s, Kenyan tourism has not grown. We have been receiving only one million visitors a year which is very small if you compare this with Spain which receives 60 million visitors, or France which gets 40 million visitors, or the USA which receives 100 million visitors; or Egypt which gets 5 million visitors a year. We are really far behind and yet we have the capacity and ability. We are a diverse nation. Ours is a beautiful country and we can bring tourists here in large numbers. However, that should not be at the expense of the poor farmer living at the foot of Mount Kenya. These people have their lives to live. Majority of Kenyans do not benefit from tourists. Tourism is an industry for elites. Unless we change our system, that is, the system of looking for tourists to boost the economy and the traditional aspects of beaches and wildlife, we will not be able to sustain and bring more tourists to this country. India, USA, Malaysia get many tourists because they have diversified. They have used education as a tourist mechanism. They have used medical facilities and other sectors to support the tourism industry. We could improve the industry by reducing poaching and becoming good to the farmers. We could also fence areas where there is wildlife. The money that we get from The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}