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{
"id": 6391,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/6391/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Wekesa",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Forestry and Wildlife",
"speaker": {
"id": 209,
"legal_name": "Noah Mahalang'ang'a Wekesa",
"slug": "noah-wekesa"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to commend the Mover of this Motion which is overdue. We have talked about this for a long time. The history of the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) is a good one. The AFC was established to assist the African farmer who at that time did not have title deeds to give to banking institutions. So, it came in very handy as a way of getting finance to do various activities including buying livestock, fencing farms, establishing water systems on farms and growing maize, coffee or whatever other crop. For some time the AFC worked very well. I must also say that I bought my farm through an AFC loan and it took me 15 years to repay the loan. So, let us call a spade a spade. The AFC has actually played a big part in the economic development of our people. However, over a period of time, many things have happened. One of the things that we have always talked about was that AFC should be transformed into a bank. This has been a debate that has taken many years. I think we have reached a stage where we should act on some of these issues. The AFC as it is now must be restructured so that it acts as a farmers’ bank. That way, it will be able to serve Kenyans properly. We are a nation of close to 40 million people and food security is a major issue. I get very upset and ashamed when I switch on my television everyday and see very skinny children of my brothers and sisters being shown on international television. They report that these pictures come from Kenya and that these Kenyans are unable to get food. I really get upset because, as my colleague has said, this country is “Heaven.” Half or one-third of this country is rain-fed and we can grow all the food that we need. So, we do not need to see these pictures at all. We, as leaders, must change the perception that Kenya is a country that can go begging for food. This can only happen if we can get our act together. One way of doing it is by making sure that we look after the farmer by giving him facilities to produce enough food. These facilities can be provided by the AFC which, as I have said, we can reform so that it serves Kenyans better. All over the country, it is general knowledge that many farmers have been unable to pay back their loans because of the adversaries of climate change and even the post election violence that we have had. Many people have lost their belongings and livestock through drought and the post election violence. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I agree with the Mover of the Motion that we, as a Government, must bail out these farmers. The issue of climate change is with us and many people do not realise its negative impact. Climate change has brought us prolonged drought. It must be understood that the drought that we used to have is no longer there. We are now having very prolonged drought and when we get rain, it is also very heavy and forms floods. We lose crops such as maize because of heavy rains. As I speak – and you know I come from Trans Nzoia – we are having our heaviest rains now. Since my childhood, rains stopped in October in my region. However, now the rains will be on until December. So, the farmer is thoroughly confused. By September we start harvesting maize and that is when we are now getting very heavy rains. So, the farmer gets his crop from the farm but he is unable to store it because he does not have storage facilities. So, we lose our crop because of rotting. You have heard the story of aflatoxin which comes as a result of poor storage. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the AFC can come in very handy to give loans to farmers so that they can have storage facilities. Farmers should be able to have irrigation facilities. Half of this country is arid and semi-arid. We must now target the semi-arid and arid areas by providing Kenyans who live in these areas with irrigation facilities. We will not get away with it unless we harvest our water and provide irrigation facilities to our farmers so that we can produce enough food. This will ensure that we do not have terrible incidents where our leaders go out of Kenya to borrow money. A small country such as Malawi is now ahead of Kenya. I have not been to Malawi, but I have got relations who live or go there. Malawi produces more food than they need. Some of the maize that we get here comes from a small country such as Malawi. If Malawi can have structures or a framework in which it is able to produce enough food for its people, what about us in this country? Definitely, we are doing our things wrong. With the new Constitution in place, we should really examine whether we are doing it the right way. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, long ago I used to be told that Kenya is a farming country. It was said that it is a rich country with a farming community. However, Kenyans have never benefitted from farming. We do not have millionaires among farmers. All the millionaires are here in Nairobi. They deal in real estates, drugs and whatever. That is where you will get millionaires. You will never get millionaires from the farming community. Why is this so? It is because we have not got our act together. Let us empower the farmers. Let us continue giving them cheap fertilizers. The Assistant Minister is sitting here and I want to commend him for the policy of giving cheap fertilizer to the farmers. That is how we can get production. By the way, Mr. Assistant Minister, my colleague; let us have fertilizer in good time. We are getting it too late. We must give the farmers fertilizers in good time. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I support the Motion."
}