Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 670265,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/670265/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 162,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Nyamunga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 738,
        "legal_name": "Rose Nyamunga Ogendo",
        "slug": "rose-nyamunga-ogendo"
    },
    "content": "processing facilities have resulted in meagre earnings for many Kenyans, including women who depend on fishing; this House urges the Government to establish both inland and coastal training institutions and processing plants with a view of building capacity for fishing communities to maximize their returns from the lucrative fishing sector. Hon. Deputy Speaker, let me take this opportunity to move this Motion. I would like to take ourselves a bit down the memory lane of the resources we have in this country. We realise that each and every region is endowed with different types of natural resources. If these natural resources are not properly nurtured and developed, people coming from the respective areas will never benefit. Most of the time, people languish in poverty. That has been the case in the fishing industry. I do not want to blame the Government or anybody, but I think we have ourselves to blame for the fact that we have never nurtured and developed the fishing industry yet it is an industry that can produce a lot of wealth for this country. We always compare ourselves with Singapore and South Korea. I understand that in the 1960s, the former President the late Jomo Kenyatta lent the Singaporean Government US$10,000 to help them in development. If you compare Singapore with our country now, we are way below it. So, where did we go wrong or what went wrong? In my view, I think we neglect what is our own and tend to value other people or economies. On Monday, The Standard Newspaper reported categorically that we now eat fish from China. It is not wrong to import fish from China, but I think it is not in order that we neglect our own industries. If you look at the way we manage the fishing industry, the way we have neglected our farmers and the fact that there is no single institution in this country, from the village polytechnics to the national polytechnics – maybe in universities there in some training on fish farming--- These institutions need to nurture our youth and women to know how to handle fish, including the storage facilities. I will give you an example of Turkana. There was a cold plant that was put up in Turkana. In Kisumu the cold storage is not working. In Mbita it is not working. There is a lot of neglect. I do not know if it is because we fail as leaders or it is the Government which has not done much. Now we have taken the fisheries sector to the county governments and we know so many county governments are struggling to make some of the functions a reality. I would like to give a few examples. Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana produce 53 per cent of the world’s cocoa yet if you go to the capital cities of those countries, you will find a lot of chocolate on their shelves. I have had an opportunity to see that. They have a lot of chocolate imported from Switzerland or the United Kingdom (UK) yet 53 per cent of cocoa comes from the two countries. When I was growing up, I knew Ghana as the world’s leading producer of cocoa. They cannot process it. Nigeria produces a lot of oil; it is the sixth largest producer of crude oil. It exports more than 80 per cent of that oil, but cannot refine oil that it uses. So, something is wrong. I do not know whether it is Africa or the African leaders. I do not know who to blame, but something is wrong with us. We are talking of industrialisation. How are we going to industrialise Africa? How are we going to improve the lives of our people if we neglect the resources we are given? We have minerals and water. In Kisumu County we have land and water from the lake. Lake Victoria is the largest fresh water lake in the world. With that we still cannot nurture Lake Victoria. We leave it to be polluted by industries, which do not help us. If the industries were helping us and killing our lake, we would say it is okay because we are losing here and gaining there. However, as it is we are losing the lake; it is getting contaminated. More so the Kenyan side is very dirty. 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."
}