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"id": 654141,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
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"speaker": {
"id": 24,
"legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
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"content": "relatively new phenomenon. A lot of people now argue that part of the reason why we are having this pervasiveness of food insecurity in our nation is our obsession with exotic food stuffs and particularly exotic seed varieties. As I was growing up in the rural Rarieda Constituency, the real foodstuffs that we used to take came from indigenous seeds such as sorghum, millet, cassava and others of that sort. There were several advantages with these foodstuffs. Most of these foodstuffs are not only hardy, very resistant and easy to grow, but they are also easy to store. In fact preservation of indigenous millet and sorghum is very easy because where I come from people simply use ash from cooking herbs to do so. This is something we need to do. It is not secret anymore that the moment we decided to migrate from focusing on indigenous seeds and indigenous food crops, food insecurity in our country became biting. That is why we are now having proliferation of lifestyle diseases. As we debate this Bill, let us also debate it with a larger focus on food security in our country and look at what is ailing our country. Recently, I read a report that a lot of the food that we produce in this country is wasted. About Kshs50 billion worth of food that is produced in this country is wasted. As much as we talk about this, this debate will not realise much if at the end of the day it does not focus on how we can make our country food secure. I have argued here before that it is not possible to be a middle income economy, as we aim to build through Vision 2030, when every year we have to hold begging bowls in order to feed our people. Food is not just a basic human right; if you do not eat you will die. The quest for us, as a nation should be, since we are just about 40 million Kenyans, with proper planning and putting systems in place, embracing indigenous seeds and encouraging our people to be more and more focused on indigenous seeds, it is possible, doable and noble to make our country completely food secure. Hon. Deputy Speaker, as I said, storage still remains a major problem. We waste a lot of what we produce and the little that we produce is not enough to feed our people. There was a time in 2011 when there was real contradiction in our country. When maize was going to waste in Trans-Nzoia County, which is the bread basket of our country, people were dying in some parts of the country, particularly in Turkana County, which is not even far from Trans-Nzoia. If we can improve on storage and distribution networks, this obsession, like being told that we have to go the GMO way, would not be necessary. This will ensure that if one county has a bumper harvest, it can be easily transported to another part of the country. That is why you have seen even the opponents of the Galana-Kulalu Irrigation Scheme have been talking about irrigating a million acres of land. If we are to get the expected output from it, we should be able to, at least, produce 14 million bags of maize per season. Having two seasons with irrigation, we are looking at 28 million bags of maize. To a large extent, that will go towards addressing the food situation in the country. We will produce it, but look at that part of the country where maize is being produced, how do we evacuate what has been produced and get it to those Kenyans who need it more? So, as we look at this Bill, let us look at the larger problem because ultimately, whether we want to go the indigenous seeds way or exotic way, the concern has to be that before we become a middle income country and a developed country, we must become food secure. The aim of any government must be to ensure that no Kenyan, wherever they are, goes to bed on an empty belly. If we cannot guarantee food for our people, all our development aspirations are in vain. Let us look at the larger problem, which is food insecurity in our country. Let us look at how we can come together as a nation to ensure that as we pursue our development blue prints, 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."
}