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{
    "id": 467765,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/467765/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 252,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 170,
        "legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
        "slug": "bonny-khalwale"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I will start by congratulating Sen. Naisula Lesuuda for coming up with this Motion. I will limit myself to the factor of what we are urging the Government to consider. One, I would like to call upon the players in the livestock industry, especially the pastoralists, to endeavor in looking for homegrown solutions as we urge the Government to assist us. By this I mean that we should look at issues like education. One of the areas that the pastoralist communities have lagged behind is the fact that human capital is very limited. It is important at this time to urge the community leaders and parents to encourage their children to be professionals in this area. Those who make it to colleges should be prepared to work at home because until now, many people look at working in north eastern as a punishment. Therefore, we have a local human resource. This investment can be sustainable. There is also need for us to look at the best way to keep livestock. In fact, this challenge of cattle rustling as it has been raised by the Mover is because we have not endeavored to have modern ways of animal husbandry. We need, especially in our universities, to have proper research and appropriate technology that can be used to ensure that better ways of keeping livestock for beef are utilized. The other local homegrown issue that must be looked into is that of investment. I would like to urge the national government and the county governments to invest in this kind of venture from the devolved funds that will come out of devolution. Finally on the issue of homegrown solutions, I would like to urge businessmen who come from this area, to venture in into it. It is an investment. I will give you an example of Kakamega County where we are giants, not just in Kenya, but in East and Central Africa in sugar cane farming. Before the sugar industry became what it is today, the local investors, at a very small level started investing in jaggeries. There are jaggeries that 10 to 20 years later, moved on to become the SONY, Mumias and Butali sugar companies that you hear about today. I would like to speak about marketing. It is important that as we set up abattoirs, the Government becomes aggressive in marketing. Ethiopia and Somalia are a ready market for our produce. All we have to do is to add value. We should then go and do risk marketing in Ethiopia. There is an unfortunate area that we can capitalise on. Many populations of Somalia and Ethiopia live on relief food from the UN. So, we should market our produce to the UN Organisations and the World Food Programme (WFP) so that when they need relief food to be taken to Ethiopia, Somalia and some parts of Kenya that invariably rely on relief food, they find a ready source down here. We all remember that one of the reasons our pastoralists fear to keep many heads of cattle is because of the fear of the consequences of drought that normally comes and sometimes wipes out all 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."
}