HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 468378,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/468378/?format=api",
"text_counter": 237,
"type": "other",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "for things like sugarcane. If this is going to be done, then we must envisage, as Sen. (Prof.) Lonyangapuo was saying, making use of these people who have been farming the same way, or looking after cattle in the same way. This can be done by making use of that labour in a set up where it becomes more productive and where it is connected to large scale farming either run by the State or by private farms. Now I come to my last point, which is what Sen. Kajwang was saying. There is now a global movement for people who have food deficiency in their countries, particularly in the west and in the Middle Eastern countries, to look for land in Africa where it is still very cheap and accessible. They want to use this land for agriculture in order to have access to food or to bio-fuels. Those are the two things that are very popular. But we, in Africa, must be very careful because this could also be another form of land grabbing in Africa where they will access this land very cheaply, produce food very cheaply, but pay us peanuts. Today as I was coming to work, I found some guards demonstrating outside the American Embassy. They had placards saying “America is a super power, but they pay their guards peanuts.” It reminded me of this land grabbing business where we have a lot of super powers like Kuwait and so on; making proposals to all countries, even South Korea or to developing countries, saying “give us land, we shall do this or that,”. But when you read between the lines, you may find that the deals that people are signing are yet another stage of pillage and land grabbing in Africa. We should be very careful about these deals. Mr. Deputy Speaker Sir, my final point is that we cannot continue to farm or look after cattle, camels or donkeys in the same old way. In order to improve productivity, we must organize pastoralism and agriculture in a new way. That is not strange to Kenya because Kenya has done it before in terms of the Million Acre Scheme, KTDA, Mumias Sugar Mills and so on, where we have had contractual farming. We can even call it contractual pastoralism in those areas where pastoralism is a business rather than just saying that we shall have these peasants, have a market for their cattle or their camels, and yet that market is not organized systematically. So, it becomes a sporadic thing. Yes, the Government will go to Budalangi and organize irrigation. But after that, what next? There are so many farmers in Ahero. The irrigation scheme there, is very good. However, the problem is that the organization of the market for the rice has been chaotic for a long time. I was the Chairman of the Public Investments Committee (PIC) in the mid 1990s and we went through that. It was very pitiful because these people were doing a lot of work. They were producing a lot of rice. But when it came to marketing, they faced vultures. These vultures came from the State. The very organizations that are involved in irrigation and marketing are the same people who turn around and become vultures to the farmers. Just like it is with the Kenya Sugar Board (KSB), for example. If you look at the history of the KSB and how it has been operating, obviously, it has not been good to the sugar farmers. The problem is that the people who run these things have such inter connections and webs within the State. In the final analysis, unless the State becomes really responsible in implementing these things on behalf of the farmers and pastoralists, we shall sit in this Senate, grow old and go wherever we are going. The problem shall be left behind. I am sure Sen. G.G. Kariuki remembers these things very well. 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."
}