Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 720327,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/720327/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 162,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Nooru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2238,
        "legal_name": "Adan Mohamed Nooru",
        "slug": "adan-mohamed-nooru"
    },
    "content": "Time has come. This is a potential sector in this world; not only in Kenya but this world. We have lost almost all the markets in the world. The Arabian countries, which are the biggest consumers of meat are next door, but they are exporting meat to as far as Australia and Brazil at very high costs. We have lost our European Union (EU) quota of beef to very small countries like Namibia and Botswana. It is very unfortunate that this very critical sector, which has a very high potential as I have said, has been neglected by the Government and has never been structured in any way. Only a skeleton department exists under agriculture all the time. Agriculture, because of the pattern of rainfall and climatic change in this country, is almost diminishing. The land use is also getting exhausted. We have been applying fertilisers. The land size is being reduced in terms of farming. But the large chunk of land in the arid and semi arid areas where there is high potential even in terms of agriculture and where we would have done a lot of irrigation, has been ignored. We are really trying to concentrate on merry-go-round by investing in high potential areas by giving them subsidised fertilisers, buying their products in terms of food security and giving them those preferences and opportunities. But time has come when the Government must look into this sector and invest in it heavily. I thank the Member for bringing this Bill. It will streamline and structure the livestock sector. There is no head or tail at the moment. You do not know who is a farmer, who is a trader or who markets it. We have lost totally the entire opportunity of livestock business in this country. The other aspect that has really affected livestock business in this country is diseases. It has never been looked into. For the last five years, we are trying to create a disease-free zone in this country. Unfortunately, that is one area which has hampered even the export of our livestock products and produce. Therefore, we need Members to support this Bill. It is very critical. It is going to bring sanity in this sector. We shall have a structured kind of business and give farmers direction in terms of development of livestock, marketing and processing. We must have structured end results until we reach the consumers. The Bill is very timely. I urge the Members to support it. However, there are a few clauses which I need the Members to look into so as to streamline the Bill. Clause 5(a) is on the mandate of the board. In most cases, where we have developers, marketers and processors, you cannot cook your cake and eat it. The regulatory body should have been a different one in this case. The regulatory body should not have been the same board. The board, the process and the whole value chain should have been regulated by a different body. That is one area I need Members to look into. In the same Part II Clause 5(d), on the liaison between the national Government and the private sector, there are county governments. The idea is that the board should be able to liaise with the national Government, county governments and the private sector. 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."
}