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{
    "id": 531315,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/531315/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 287,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Why should we wait until a disaster arrives before we step in and yet we have had big lessons every year for the last 50 years? The one million acres that we intend to farm in Kilifi and Tana River counties - and yet you do not have farmers there who will be weeding and harvesting. It would have been prudent to take part of it to Garissa and Mandera. The portions for farming should have been distributed equally. Personally, I believe every county should have been made to set aside at least 10,000 acres. That would translate to 470,000 acres of land that would be under irrigation in the whole country, including Nairobi that has no space, but could lease land from West Pokot or any other county for as many years as they can, where they can get food for their people who are suffering in Kibera and Mathare. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when I was the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, the former Government went and revived the schemes along the Tana River. There was a lot of produce, but because there was nobody to harvest it and no stores, aflotoxin came in and all the maize got rotten. This was because there was no proper planning. Suppose we distributed this irrigation programme accordingly, it would become the issue of, for example, Kiambu County which has no land to go and negotiate with the people of Isiolo County or Makueni County and pay for a lease of 20 to 30 years, for the time they want to do their irrigation and farming. Unless we take radical steps, we will be creating these authorities which will become employment bureaus for some people while we do not make headway at all. We are proposing in this Bill to have the National Drought Emergency Fund. Are we saying that we have never had any fund at all? We have had some funds before and that is why when landslides occur, we mitigate. This has become a ritual in Budalangi every year. In the next one month, the rains will come and then we will start running around making the very famous statement. If you may allow me to paraphrase in Kiswahili, like the woman who was quoted saying: “Wapi Serikali?” She wanted to know where the Government was, to come and rescue her because the waters had swept her and separated her from her children and her house had been submerged. What lessons do we need to learn any further than what we have learnt in order to do things right? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as we talk about drought mitigation measures, what are we doing to the cotton industry that was giving us clothes, for example, the cotton development? This goes hand in hand with the waters that you are going to harness in the dams for irrigation purposes. We should be able to revive the dead textile firms that we had. We cannot depend on a neighbour in the Middle East or Europe to faithfully continue to produce clothes for us and yet we have soils that are better than theirs. As it is suggested here, this NDMA can do a lot if we pass this Bill and possibly most of the things that are suggested here are implemented. One of the functions of this NDMA in Clause 5(e) is to facilitate national and county level drought contingency processes and preparation of national and county level drought contingency plans. Are we saying that we do not have any plans at all, or are we just copying and pasting from what we had before? We need to publish and disseminate some of the information. We should also indicate in this Bill how the county government will be able to link up and work with them in order to establish their own NDMA. We are 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."
}