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{
    "id": 719323,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/719323/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 227,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ochieng",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2955,
        "legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
        "slug": "david-ouma-ochieng"
    },
    "content": "Standard Gauge Railway, but it also means Strategic Grain Reserves. We have that. Are we able, as Parliament, to monitor it every year to see that we have enough grain that can last us through the drought? Are we doing that as a Parliament? Are we ensuring that people are taken care of in terms of the effects of drought? When you are doing this, it is done sometimes, with discrimination. You will see the Government running to North Eastern, Wajir and Baringo where my friend Hon. Abongotum comes from, but you will never see them running to Nyanza. When they come to Nyanza, they want the chiefs to write names of 20 or 30 people per constituency so that they can give them some maize. In a constituency that has 200,000 people, how do you write names of 20 people? What is the parameter of choosing them? If you want to respond to drought, it must be holistic. It must be coordinated and everyone knows how it is going to be done. It has to be done transparently. You know that even the maize scandal that happened some time back was about drought. People sit somewhere waiting to cash in on the effects of drought. This is the time you will hear there is corruption and some people have lost half a billion shillings because some people purported they could supply grains to alleviate the effects of drought. I want to end by proposing that as Parliament, going forward, we must budget contingency funds to alleviate the effects of drought. We must put aside money every year; money that is earmarked and not given to the Ministries to use how they want, to ensure that boreholes are drilled and people can access food during drought. If it means importing food, we should import that food early enough. The response has been very late. I have lately seen the President and his deputy going round purporting to register people and giving them tins of beans. What happens if the President does not go there? What happens to places where the Deputy President will not go? How do they get food? And how much food can you possibly lift using a chopper? I have seen Cabinet Secretaries flying in choppers with food. How much food can you carry in a chopper? And then you see women lining up to get half kilogramme of maize. It is a shame. Parliament must be the body that ensures that we respond to drought and meet the challenges of the 21st Century and the needs of our people. For example, our children will not stay in school. I hope you know that children will not stay in school because of hunger. Their parents cannot afford to buy food. Their parents cannot afford to pay school fees. The children cannot stay in school because even if they are in school, you probably know that Matiang’i has said that he does not want to see children eating lunch in school and that they should go back home to eat lunch yet there is no food at home. Coordination of policies and programmes that alleviate drought would be very important. Let us check corruption in the way we distribute drought and emergency responses. Finally, as a country, we look bad if we are going to have begging bowls every January and December. We know it is going to happen and we are sure it is going to happen, but we are not talking about it until the last minute and hope that we are going to ask for arms. You will hear someone telling us Kenyans for Kenyans, or shilingi kwa shilingi to help the drought victims. It is only this House that has the sole responsibility of ensuring that issues affecting Kenyans are handled. We can budget and put money aside and ensure that Kenyans are not ashamed because of hunger or embarrassed because they cannot respond to their daily needs. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I beg to move."
}