Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 66997,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/66997/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 343,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Concerning the issue of hunger, we know that Kenya has the capacity to produce enough food not only to feed her citizens, but also export. We know of Malawi which has come up with policies that have actually taken seriously the Maputo Declaration of ensuring that 10 per cent of a country’s budget goes towards agriculture. If we could put enough resources in agriculture from which 80 per cent of our nation earns a livelihood, we can remove this nation from the list of the food- insecure nations of the world. It is not a good list to belong to. We know that there have been plans to put up a fertilizer factory. I have a Motion before this House which will be urging the Government to establish a fertilizer factory in this country. This is because of the high demand for fertilizer; the delays in importation and the issue of accessibility to and affordability of fertilizer and other agricultural inputs. They have frustrated the efforts of farmers in increasing production to ensure that we have enough food to feed our nation and the rest of our continent. If the Government was, indeed, serious about achieving national food security, they would have put more in this initiative of availing inputs, particularly fertilizers at affordable prices to farmers. This can be done. We know that previous attempts have not succeeded. There is the old KenRen Project which was a total rip off. As we speak, it still remains in our books and every year, we are told that we are still paying for a fertilizer factory that never existed. Millions of shillings of taxpayers’ money are going towards this project that never took off and it is because we guaranteed some questionable companies. If, indeed, we were serious, we would come up with an alternative processing plant will boost production through availability and affordability of these products. I believe this can be done. In reducing poverty and hunger, the first thing we can do is to empower the farmers of this nation. The second greatest resource in our country is the young people. Remember 80 per cent of our population consists of the young people. I believe that we have not invested enough in them. There are very many young people who drop from school and many of them have resorted to the boda boda business. On the Order Paper, we have another Motion touching on the boda boda sector empowerment. If only the Government could invest more in its young people – those we have spend so much money educating in primary and secondary school – we would be able to reduce poverty. If we could do that in the largest section of our society, that is, the young people, we would be able to move this country and lift many Kenyans out of poverty. This is one area we have not focused on. However, we believe that with proper policies in place and more investment in the boda boda and Jua Kali sectors, where many young Kenyans have resorted to informal employment, we will be able to move this country forward. In the recent past, the NARC regime promised the creation of 500,000 jobs for the young people. This promise never came to pass. These young people, instead of turning out to be the greatest resource for this country, are now becoming a menace in our own society. Instead of being productive, they are being destructive. They have joined illegal gangs. They have resorted to drugs, crime and prostitution when they would have been in the army that would have fought poverty and hunger. That way, they would have been productive and enabled this nation achieve the MDGs and especially the one on reduction of extreme poverty and hunger. On the issue of achieving universal education, it is a matter that is now in our Constitution. It is a Constitutional right for all Kenyans to access free and compulsory education. In this area, there has been great progress more than on the other MDGs. Here, we have the Free Primary Education (FPE) Programme which has led to an"
}