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"id": 654144,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/654144/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kubai Iringo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 1574,
"legal_name": "Cyprian Kubai Iringo",
"slug": "cyprian-kubai-iringo"
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"content": "Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this important Bill. I support the amendment, which will give more teeth to this Bill. Once we amend Clauses 11(3) and 69, we will achieve two main goals in ensuring that this Bill is in conformity with the Constitution. This is especially in the devolved part and to strengthen the planned genetic resource center. This Committee will play a vital role in trying to see how we can explore more on indigenous plants and seeds, which have been overridden by exotic plants and seeds that have been brought to us by foreigners and people who colonized us. In the process, we put aside particular seeds and plants that sustained Africans. When we embraced exotic plants and seeds, which sometimes become very expensive to maintain because they require fertilizers and other husbandry to be compatible with our soils and climate, we forgot that we used to have seeds like sorghum, which were drought resistant. We have also forgotten about millet that is slowly becoming extinct in our farms. It was also a good drought resistant plant. We had plants like cassava, yams and other foods which Africans fed their families on. With or without rains, those crops could survive. We have not done any research or anything to keep them on our farms or shambas. We have been uprooting and neglecting them and going for the exotic ones, which could blossom very fast so that we can get value for them, forgetting that the ones we are ignoring are more nutritious, healthy and kept our people alive for many years. There are many other plants which had medicinal value that Africans used to treat themselves with. When somebody got sick, medicine men would go to the forest, pick the bark, roots or leaves of certain trees, which they used as medicine for humans and even animals. In my community, we used to treat goats, cows and human beings. If we take time to look into the medicinal value in these crops, plants and seeds, we might find some that can treat diseases that we are still looking for their treatment or drugs from the outside world. You remember the medicine from Loliondo in Tanzania where people flocked. If that tree that the old man is using to treat people is further exploited and researched on, we can come up with a potent medicine for ailments affecting us. We have neglected our indigenous trees simply because some take too many years to grow and thus people rush to plant eucalyptus, grevillea, cider and pine. Once these trees are planted, they sprout very fast. However, it has been proved that these exotic trees absorb all the water in the soil thus drying up our rivers. Our riverbeds are drying up very fast because of planting trees like eucalyptus forgetting that there were similar trees which were growing in swampy and riparian areas and riverbeds yet they consumed little water and kept rivers or streams running. During the dry seasons, rivers and streams could not dry up. We should plant drought resistant plants in our forests, farms and homes. Not only will they attract rainfall but they will also resist drought because they absorb very little water. As I conclude, this Bill is timely. The other day, His Excellency the President signed the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, which included miraa, a source of income in Meru County, into the Crops Act. Miraa which is an indigenous tree has found its place in the Crops Act, and at the same time, it will be one of the plants that will find a good space in this 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."
}