Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 578015,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/578015/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 131,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Alfred Keter",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2514,
        "legal_name": "Alfred Kiptoo Keter",
        "slug": "alfred-kiptoo-keter"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I really want to take this opportunity first to thank the Mediation Committee for this wonderful Report. It is going to give a solution to farmers who have really suffered for a long time. I sit in the Departmental Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Cooperatives. We have been having a lot of challenges directly to do with fertilizer distribution. I come from a region where we utilize fertilizer a lot every year. I know the challenges that farmers have been facing. I hope this Board is going to give a permanent solution so that we can ensure that we make fertilizer distribution efficient and affordable. The cost of production at the moment in this country is really causing a lot of discouragement to those who want to produce. Agriculture employs over 60 per cent of Kenyans. If we have a Board that is going to address how we can have fertilizer that is affordable, even the question of soil testing which has been a challenge, it will be good. We normally give fertilizer sometimes in this country to the wrong places, where farmers need totally different types of fertilizer. About the foodstuffs where animal feeds falls under, it is also very expensive. Having such a Board, it is going to advise Government as a matter of policy to address on whether to introduce subsidies and to encourage even production within this country. I would like to support other Members who have talked about having a fertilizer factory within this country. Those of us who have been in China have realized it is not rocket science to produce fertilizer. It takes the willingness of a few individuals plus the Government. We read a lot in this Mediation Report even the consensus where Senate could agree with National Assembly. It is very encouraging. I urge and call upon Senators to really focus on issues that are devolved. When you see them discussing Kenya Airways, they sometimes miss the opportunity to really address the issues that touch on the Senate as a matter of Constitutional mandate and yet their responsibility is very clear. On the Chairperson being competitively sourced and then appointed by the Cabinet Secretary, to me we should allow Members of the Committee to elect their Chair because it happens all over, in any committee or organization and it is good practice to allow Members to have the power to elect their chairperson. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}