Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 392151,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/392151/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 164,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Madam Temporary Speaker, for giving me a chance to support this Motion. I want to agree with Sen. G.G. Kariuki in his opening remarks that the proponents of the new Constitution had an idea about building a new constitutional arrangement where we would govern ourselves in a better way and where there would be standards in leadership and management of public affairs. I think this is an important starting point for anything that we want to do, be it in the agricultural sector or in matters to deal with security or any endeavor that we take as a country or as a nation. Madam Temporary Speaker, I just wanted to point out that if you look at the agricultural sector and the institutions which were put in place – some even before Independence – to take care of the agricultural and livestock sectors over the years, many of them were affected by incidences of corruption and mismanagement. If we go through some of the institutions that I have on my list, you would be surprised at how much damage we have done to ourselves. Take, for example, the Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC) which had so many farms and research institutions, growing everything from coffee to tea and also keeping livestock. What we saw over the years was the ADC farms being taken over and being given out as gifts to politically-connected persons. The same thing happened to the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC). There was a time, until the NARC Government came in, when that important financial institution had become moribund; it had no funds and it could not finance farming and livestock activities, and it had to be revived. The same thing can be said about the Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA). You will remember that there used to be an Uplands Bacon Factory, which was a public institution that went under and the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC), which was responsible for training so many other similar institutions. In fact, if you go to Botswana, you will find that the Botswana Meat Commission was really a replication of the KMC. Similarly, our sugar factories were mismanaged. In fact, I remember at one time Nzoia Sugar Factory ordering for equipment for that factory. They bought machines that could not move on any road in Kenya. The equipment was not meant for Kenyan roads and the Nzoia Sugar Factory lost a lot of money. The same happened for the cashew nut factory in the Coast. There used to be a Sisal Board and a Cotton Board which were active; there used to be a Kenya Farmers Association (KFA), which was very robust and very extensive in its activities but it became moribund. With the Kenya Co-operative 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."
}