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{
    "id": 48054,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/48054/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 263,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mututho",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 97,
        "legal_name": "John Michael Njenga Mututho",
        "slug": "john-mututho"
    },
    "content": "Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to support this Motion and congratulate the Mover for coming out boldly to say what many Kenyans would like to hear, and what the Government would not like even to imagine that it is being said. We heard the Prime Minister the other day here and he spoke very candidly. For those of you who might have escaped to note one of his remarks, he said that 60 per cent of the current inflation is food driven. It means literally that if we had adequate food, we would bring down that inflation by 60 per cent. Why do we not have adequate food? It is because Kenyan’s staple food is maize meal and about 80 per cent of the food we eat generally would have one form of maize meal or another. Maize meal has had its share of scams. I want to talk about 2007 when we had a bumper harvest, but bring you closer to where you can remember, 2010, when we had another bumper harvest, following a series of rainfall. Both years have one thing in common; in both years, maize was not available. Why was it not available? It is because primarily, the farmers or producers did not sell to the right bodies when that maize was available. The cartels that come with maize production again swept through the whole supply chain and we ended up having a situation where we do not have maize again. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, those people are thinking ahead of this Government. I think it would be a shame if you look at what is happening and the Government is in deep slumber. Now, the cartel is shifting towards next year and that is why we do not have seeds. That is because if the farmers do not plant, it will be very easy again to have nothing to harvest and the maize cartels will come. I want to say, at the outset, that my Departmental Committee on Agriculture will be tabling a report here this week on what happened to the seeds. It is a report worth reading. It is something that you will see the cheap and scandalous trends that people invent every new day and create new scandals. We covered in-depth what happened and we are going to tell you that in black and white. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the rules of this House do not allow somebody to anticipate debate. It is for that reason that I will not be able to elaborate on seeds. But when I rise here again to move that report, I will say what would make people go to court not only for serious economic crimes, but also for total sabotage of this Government and whatever it is trying to do."
}