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{
    "id": 725227,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/725227/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 114,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. F.K. Wanyonyi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2065,
        "legal_name": "Ferdinard Kevin Wanyonyi",
        "slug": "ferdinard-kevin-wanyonyi"
    },
    "content": "have all heard from various Members, Botswana, which learned so much from us, is better off because they have gone further and trained some of the personnel in their area. They are doing far better than we are doing. We feel that if we establish the board, it will improve training, supervision and even regulation so that it can supervise the sector. The other thing is that we need value addition. Apart from just exporting meat, we also need to have other products and by-products from livestock that can be exported. We are talking about hooves, hides and skins and even bones, so that we can have value addition to livestock products. We do not even know how many livestock we have in this country. With the establishment of a board, we will be able to know how many donkeys, sheep, goats and cattle we have in this country. If you ask the Cabinet Secretary (CS) in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries or the Department of Livestock how many livestock we have in this country, you will not get the answer. The introduction of the board will enable us to have very specific numbers to work on. The other thing is that this Bill introduces insurance for livestock. Yes, we actually have insurance now in about five counties, particularly in the arid and semi arid areas of this country. We have introduced the insurance on livestock so that those who are affected at this time are compensated. With the establishment of the board, we will have insurance that will cover all the other arid and semi-arid areas. That will be over and above the four counties in which we are conducting trials. We have cases where very many countries, particularly in the Middle East and Far East - like Hong Kong - wanted to get beef from us. Without an established unit of marketing, it is very difficult to have coordinated activities between Kenya and other countries, particularly the Middle East, where there is a very good market for our products. On the management of Kenya Meat Commission (KMC), we were very impressed that there are negotiations on where we have markets and demand for beef in the Middle East and even as far as Hong Kong. But this is not a very developed market. If we have the board, we will have better coordination and establishment of contacts elsewhere to export our beef products, particularly meat, and earn this country foreign exchange that we badly need. Lastly, I do not quite agree that the policy of the Government is to kill some of the parastatals. I do not think that we are ready to privatise KMC. It was established for a purpose. There was an indication by some speaker that the Government wants to privatise KMC. We will oppose that because the inception of that parastatal was to help communities around and provide employment for the people around there, which I think it is doing. Therefore, it will not be right for us to privatise that parastatal. If you did that at the moment, you will sell it for a song because it is in a very bad state. We need to have it improved and continue putting some money for the development of that parastatal. I want to end my remark by saying: Let us support this Bill so that it can modernise the exportation in livestock because it is a very important sector of our economy. I support the Bill."
}