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"id": 638674,
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"content": "It will be remembered that the issue of Migingo Island has been around for a long time and that when it first came up a few years ago, when the President of Uganda finally conceded that Migingo Island was in Kenya, he then said that if Migingo Island is in Kenya, when you drop off from the island into the lake, you are now in Uganda. It then made it very impossible for our fishermen to do anything when they are on Migingo Island because being in Migingo counts for nothing unless you are taking advantage of the fish in the lake. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to emphasize that as we support this, we must all be reminded that the real reason in Migingo is not the island. It is the rich fish resource. It is my personal persuasion that all the fish in Lake Victoria is ours. Where does the fish come from? Scientifically, breeding only takes place in the warm waters upstream, along the main rivers that feed into Lake Victoria. So, since all these rivers are in Kenya, it, therefore, means that the breeding takes place in the Kenyan rivers, the mothers and fathers of the fish are in Kenya, they mate in Kenya and they give birth to young fish which are Kenyan fish. So, the fish is ours. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to support this Bill because included in it is the emphasis on community participation. One of the reasons why our people do not enjoy maximum benefits from the fishing industry is because for a long time they have been left out in decision making by way of how to manage the resource, how to conserve it and how the benefits can go directly to our people. It goes without saying that we want the maximization of the benefits to the local people. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it adds no value when every weekend the Jubilee honchos in their rallies say that they are giving these men milk cooling plants and talk nothing about the need for cooling plants for keeping our fish around the lake. If the Government has got money for milk cooling plants, why is the same Government not making it possible for cooling plants to be installed around Lake Victoria? It is very sad that a fisherman goes to the lake, gets the fish early in morning, the guys from Nairobi arrive with their canters and they park and keep quite. So, at 6.00 a.m. the fishmongers collects his fish and goes to the shores and the big buyer from Nairobi is just quiet. By 9.00 a.m., the buyer tells him he will give him Kshs200 per fish and the former tells him his fish is very big. He tells the buyer he wants Kshs250, but the guy keeps quiet. At 11.00 a.m., flies are now starting to approach the fish and the buyer tells him he will give him Kshs150. The guy is desperate and he says he be given the Kshs200 he had earlier said. At 1.00 p.m., he tells him he will give him Kshs150 and the fisherman gives in. So, our people have remained in poverty and this must be brought to an end. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Bill tends to re-visit the issue of Vision 2030. It is very unfortunate that during the tenure of Jubilee Government, Vision 2030 has been completely forgotten. It, therefore, means that when we take over next year, we will have to readjust to Vision 2035 because an entire five years have been lost. Can you imagine the special team of experts that was chaired by Mr. Mugo Kibati of Vision 2030, has never met since Jubilee took power at Kasarani Stadium and we expect that the country will move towards Vision 2030? What is lost to Kenyans is that the so called projects that Jubilee is trying to tell Kenyans they are rolling out are the Vision 2030 projects, only that they speak about it and get excited when the issue of tendering comes in. I mean it! The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes"
}