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{
    "id": 620752,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/620752/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 86,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ngóngo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "although late in our term. I do not think the people of Kenya created a bicameral Parliament by mistake. Now that we have found a new working formula with the Senate, let us respect each other as we continue deliberating on Bills that involve the two Houses, including those Bills that touch on the national Budget and public financial management. Having said that, I want to agree with those who deliberated and agreed on this mediated version of the Bill. In my view, the fundamental questions are two, namely, how prudently, efficiently and economically can we manage our affairs as a country without compromising service delivery and overburdening the people of Kenya, who are required to fund and support these officers? I agree with my colleagues who said that geographically and climatically, Kenya is not uniform. A county may have diverse geographical and climatic conditions. In constituencies such as mine, there is an area which is so fertile and another area which is dry. By and large, we must also agree that there are areas of extreme drought in this country. This country has areas which are very fertile. We are actually blessed, in my view, because we have a part of this country which can feed other parts of the country if we plan well. We also have other areas that we consider being drought-prone, but which have natural resources that if exploited properly, can also run the economy of this country. Those areas which are facing extreme drought need special attention in terms of drought management. That is why the National Drought Management Authority should focus more on areas of extreme vulnerability to drought. It will not make sense to establish Drought Management Authority offices in areas which do not require constant drought mitigation follow-ups. That takes me to my last comment, which is the second step. We need to evaluate and look at the positioning of activities of various authorities in this country that are given responsibility to provide services. I do not see why offices which are supposed to give capacity to sugarcane farmers are located in Nairobi’s Loresho area instead of being in the sugarcane growing areas of Western Kenya and Nyanza, so that they can be close to the point of service delivery. It does not make sense at all. We need to evaluate the positioning of all our relevant authorities and bodies. I now know that fishing is done through fish ponds, but even before we came to this kind of fish farming, fishing was mostly undertaken in the coastal region, Nyanza and western Kenya. However, you find offices that are involved in management of fishing activities in Thika. This is a demonstration that, as a country, we need to evaluate the positioning of service delivery. The Kenya Meat Commission (KMC), for example, is completely misplaced. We need to take the KMC offices to the points of delivery. Offices in this country are just created for people to get jobs, but not to deliver services to Kenyans. Therefore, there is no value for money in our investments, hence the slow economic growth. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I support and congratulate Hon. Chachu Ganya, who was leading the team from the National Assembly. The spirit is commendable. We congratulate them for coming up with this mediated version of the Bill. We also congratulate the Members of the Senate. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}