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"content": "the potential and so on.” It is not lack of capacity or ideas. It is time that we seriously thought about the opportunities that devolution creates for us; that these areas which have been considered marginalized for a very long time now have the room to show that there is something that they can also contribute. To me, I know it is livestock farming. If it is taken seriously in these counties then, definitely, it is something that will improve those counties. As I said earlier, although Botswana has a lot of minerals like diamonds and gold, they have taken livestock farming very seriously. We have countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Nigeria with a lot of mineral desposits, but they have not tapped on livestock farming like Botswana, which has made good use of it. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will never stop talking about cattle rustling. It is a pity that in the 21st Century, there are Kenyans who are involved in it. For a very long time, some people have benefited from cattle rustling in this country. I have been urging young people to desist from this activity of cattle rustling because most of them die in the process. I would like to see us benefiting from those cows. I would like to put people who engage themselves in cattle rustling on notice that their time is over. County governments and even the national Government have to start thinking creatively. If we say we are digital, then we have to be truly digital. There is improved machinery or mechanisms that can be used. Why have we refused to embrace the chip that we should put in our cows? What is wrong? If we are saying that Information Technology (IT) has caught up with us and we have to change, there is this chip that has been proposed to be put in our livestock, so that we can track where a cow is, if it is stolen. We must put a few people out of this business of cattle rustling. If we do so, they will be wondering what to do with their cows because cattle rustling will be a thing of the past. We will improve them. We will build tanneries and abattoirs. I am sure that will also bring development in the so called marginalized areas. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have to be proud of the livestock that we have in this country. I just gave the figures of how many livestock there are in the pastoral areas. Secondly, we have very good meat. Our cows do not eat anything else. The meat is very organic; it is not like cattle from other countries where they are fed on chemicals and other foods. We have the best meat which is purely organic. We even know how the world is now looking at things. People are trying to be healthier and they want healthy food. We just sit on the resources that we have and keep crying every other time. I am telling the leadership of our county governments to take livestock farming very seriously. This is because after these five years and they continue lamenting that they are marginalized, I think even the rest of the country will wonder how these areas are marginalized. This Motion is urging our county governments to really take this as a priority. They must think seriously about what to invest in livestock farming so that they benefit their people. They must come up with quick fixes to benefit from livestock farming. Also, look at the horns and the hooves. You know that horns and hooves make buttons on our clothes. However, in my homestead when we slaughter a goat or a cow, we boil hooves together with heads. We eat the meat, take the soup and then we throw everything else away. It is not that we do not know; maybe that is why we have a Ministry of Livestock. I really want to challenge them, especially those who are there now, to make sure that livestock farming does not continue playing second fiddle in this 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."
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