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{
    "id": 701088,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/701088/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 223,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Nooru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2238,
        "legal_name": "Adan Mohamed Nooru",
        "slug": "adan-mohamed-nooru"
    },
    "content": "situation. We only engage in mitigation measures when there is an emergency but when the emergency is over, say, when we have little showers of rain, we forget about the whole situation. It is unfortunate that devolution is here with us. This is because it has brought more problems. Look at the issue of food production, it has been left to the counties. The issue of livestock and water has been devolved but what are the devolved units doing about this situation? Despite the fact that Kenya is a signatory to the Maputo Declaration of 2005 that requires every African country to allocate 10 per cent of its budget to agriculture, today, we are budgeting for 2 per cent among three critical sectors. The State Department of Fisheries, the State Department of Livestock and Agriculture combined get less than 10 per cent of the Government Budget. How do you get out of this situation of food insecurity? We need the Government to allocate enough funds for these Arid and Semi-Arid (ASAL) areas to produce more food. We have been thinking of the Jubilee policy of irrigating one million acres in this country but how much have we irrigated so far? On the issue of resource allocation, despite the fact that resource allocation in this sector is very meagre in terms of food and livestock production, the little that we have is so much uncoordinated that when we have drought, every sector runs on its own. I urge the Government to coordinate this process in a better way. It can be coordinated from one centre. It will not help to have the Ministries of Devolution and Planning, Water and Irrigation and Agriculture running their own individual programmes. Despite the fact that the Government has declared that 1.6 million Kenyans require food assistance and water, the number is increasing day and night. We only come in when the situation has worsened rather than reading the warning signs of shortage of rain. Our weatherman is doing a very good job but nobody bothers to address those issues on time and plan ahead. We only run around until the situation has reached a critical point when people have lost their livestock or when human life is almost lost. That is the time we run around that there is a problem here and there without enough resources being mobilised. It then becomes a big issue. There is a demonstration in the North Rift because of surplus of food; that the Government should buy maize. On the other hand, there a people who are crying that the Government should buy them food. Look at the imbalances that we have in this country. There is enough food rotting in the farms and yet there are people in dire need of food in some parts of the country. This is as a result of misplaced priorities. I know resources have never been enough to save the situation. I want the Government not to wait until people die, or until the situation reaches a point of no return in order to start declaring disaster. We better declare disaster at this early time so that we can mobilise the resources locally and appeal to the international community to intervene before the situation gets out of hand. The other issue which is very critical is the issue of coordination of these resources and taking mitigation measures. If it will not rain in the next two weeks, half of this country is going to be in a disastrous situation. Therefore, the Government should stand up and do the best it can in terms of resource mobilisation and also appeal to the international community so that they can come in and start assisting in terms of mitigating this worsening situation. The Government should also plan ahead to stem this kind of situation because it keeps on recurring. We do not learn from experience. It will not take more than two years before we have drought of this nature in this country. It seems that it is always a new situation to us. We are always running around trying to mobilise resources which are not there sometimes. Therefore, Kenyans are in dire need of those two very essential commodities. 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."
}