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{
    "id": 583334,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/583334/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 266,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for the guidance. I will hit the point on the Bill before us, but the teachers of this nation deserve to be paid what the court has awarded them. This Bill by the Sen. (Eng.) Muriuki tries to do some noble things. It wants to bring industrialization to the county level and to the wards. I saw mention of Constituency Industrialization Committees and I agree with my colleague Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale that that could be at superficial level. We need to look at it at the county level. This Bill wants to focus on the produce of respective counties; it wants to establish county Industrial Development Boards and county Industrial Development Funds. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as we debate this particular matter, it is doubtful whether we have a national industrialization policy that is approved. Through it, we have got an industrialization framework. Even if you talk to the people from the Ministry of Industrialization, and Enterprise Development, they will tell you that there is a roadmap to the finalization of the national industrialization policy. We, as a nation, need a coherent industrialization policy. The Ministry has been talking of coming up with an industrial development Bill. I am not aware and I have looked at the Bills tracker, I have gone to the Kenya Law Reform Commission and the status of this Industrial Development Bill still remains unclear. This country needs a binding policy and an overriding law that will guide us as we go about industrialization at the county level and at the micro level. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when we want to put up industrialization units at the county levels, it is also important that we do not let go off the thinking of economies of scale. It is important that counties come together to exploit the produce that is common to them. Homa Bay, Siaya, Migori, Kisumu and Busia counties share a resource called Lake Victoria. We must ask ourselves, is it better to set up individual fish industrialization units at the county level or shall we take advantage of our economies of scale and come up with something big, significant that will have far reaching implications on the economies of this area? Despite neglect by previous governments, I want to tell you that if we were to form blocs in some of these areas, we will go far in terms of development. The other day, we went to Homa Bay and we saw an airstrip which benefitted from a 1.3 kilometre extension of the runway. That airstrip is fairly idle because there is really nothing to be extracted from that county to be sent to other areas. We can take advantage of some of these tokens that these regions got from previous governments to tap, exploit, industrialize and start looking at other counties as ultimate export destinations. 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."
}