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{
    "id": 470432,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/470432/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 161,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "The Senator for West Pokot County",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "(Sen. (Prof.) Lonyangapuo): Mr. Speaker, Sir, I stand to support this Motion. At the beginning of the Presidential Address, I realized that he was candid enough to say that we have come out of an election and Kenya needs to begin to put itself together again and work as a people. He was calling upon all of us to be united in terms of the way we take the issues of our country and the way we also put his Government on its toes. He mentioned about the Constitution and the spirit in which we must all support his Government to implement it. I saw that he had a lot of good will in his Address, especially when he talked about the position of the Senate, that is, the Upper House. For that purpose, whatever we will be discussing and passing here should have the weight and attention required to build this nation. We should look at the calibre of people that Kenyans bestowed upon the mandate of running this House. It is, indeed, genuinely true that we are here to take care of 47 counties. These 47 counties make the total sum of Kenya. Mr. Speaker, Sir, he talked about having a lean and effective Government. In fact, we have seen the structure of 18 ministries. The reason he mentioned this is the issue of overlapping responsibilities. I am hoping that there will be order in the way in which we will do business in this House. There was competition particularly in the last Parliament where we had about 40 Ministries. Some of them were doing the same work. He also talked about agriculture which is the back-bone of the nation’s economy. I want to mention that we have depended on rain-fed agriculture for a long time. It is a pity that when the rains come, we are never prepared to harvest water. Sometimes we do not have the requisite inputs like fertilizers and seeds. You may be surprised that even as it is raining now, in some parts like West Pokot where I come from, the first lorry of fertilizer arrived last weekend. Just imagine the first rains came a month ago. I want to say that we have been planning all this time and there is money set aside for agricultural activities in this country. As I support this Motion, I call upon the new Government to fast-track and make sure that there is enough fertilizer in the depots. They should also start purchasing fertilizers for next year so that as we go to November and December, the cereal boards should have them. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the President also talked about manufacturing. What do we manufacture if we cannot add value to our farm produce? I have just mentioned that the farm is not in order. I have a lot of hope in the new Government with the promise that they have given. Our people are watching in the county to see whether this will be addressed. 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."
}