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{
    "id": 719322,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/719322/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 226,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ochieng",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2955,
        "legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
        "slug": "david-ouma-ochieng"
    },
    "content": "year like this one? We have seen politicians from both sides of the political divide, very fast telling the people to go and register as voters yet the people they are telling to register as voters, most of them are dying of hunger. They are dying of disease. They are dying of lack of food in the 21st Century. It is a shame. It is wrong and evil for us to even be, as Parliament, sitting when people are dying out there and purport we are able to do business. You know that there was massive crop failure last year in the Rift Valley, Western Kenya and in all our bread baskets. There was massive crop failure. The Government also knew this. What has the Government done to ensure that the crop failure that happened is cushioned? Why are you rushing at the last minute to import maize when all along we knew that we did not have enough maize in our reserves? We have seen job losses because people cannot produce any more. Rationing is happening everywhere. Companies have had to shut down operations because the power being supplied to them is so little they cannot produce. You have seen malnutrition. You have seen children dying. You have seen livestock and human conflict escalating because of the drought. I am happy I saw some bit of rain yesterday, but the effects of the drought are going to be seen the whole year. In Western Kenya, the price of a single tin of maize has more than doubled. Price has moved from Kshs50 to Kshs120 per what we call gorogoro, which is the small tin of maize, finger millet or cassava. People cannot afford it. It is bad in this century to be purporting to be giving aid when you go to a place and give a tin of two kilogrammes and hope that, that will take a person for a year or for a few months before their crops mature. The reason we are where we are is that we depend on rainfall. We know that rainfall in Kenya is erratic. We know it is seasonal. We know it has been reducing because of climate change, but we continue depending on rainfall as our only source of water. In this time and age, we are doing dams hoping that those dams will harness and collect rain water to serve Nairobi and Mombasa. It is bad. It is wrong planning. If you go to the Ministry of Devolution and Planning, and I read this afternoon and have counted, more than 255 reports have been done on how to combat drought. More than 255 reports with recommendations on what needs to be done. Some of them are repetitive. Some of them are as simple as snapping fingers. As a Government and as a people, we have refused. We have said that we will always wait for drought to come then we will scamper. I do not know how we feel as taxpayers when at this point in time someone in the Kenya Red Cross is going to ask you to contribute Kshs4,000. The Kenya Red Cross Society is sending appeals to Kenyans. On the face of corruption in this country, people are being asked to contribute Kshs1,000 or Kshs2,000, so that we can help sort out the effects of drought. It is a wrong thing. I think we need to put our money where our mouths are and vice versa. If we know very well that there will be drought, why can we not plan early enough? We are now a budgeting Parliament. We have Committees that are concerned with this. Why are we putting money in areas that are not able to alleviate effects of drought when we very well know that there will be drought? We have relied on relief for so long. So, the Government must ensure the way it gives relief is fair. If you want to give people maize, give them money to buy maize. Do not give them yellow maize. Do not give them rotten maize. Give them money to buy maize. Give them money to buy rice or beans. They could actually want to eat bread and not maize. These things are fungible. Cash transfers can be used. I was talking with someone and telling them that we have something called the SGR. My colleague was telling me that SGR does not only mean the 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."
}