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{
    "id": 725229,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/725229/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 116,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Katoo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 199,
        "legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
        "slug": "judah-ole-metito"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. First of all, I really want to thank the Mover, Hon. Abdinoor Mohammed Ali, for bringing such an important legislation. It has really taken time to have this very positive piece of legislation for this country. The gist of the whole Bill is in Clause 5. It is very interesting. Clause 5 has sub-clauses (a) up to (z). Actually, it is the only Bill I have seen with such sub- clauses in one clause. Sub- clauses (a) to (z) mean it is the proposed Livestock and Livestock Development Marketing Board with 26 functions. Therefore, I just want to summarise by talking about issues that affect the livestock industry in this country. First of all, the successive governments have not recognised that sector in terms of writing off the loans that are taken by livestock keepers. We have seen loans being written off in other sectors like sugar, tea and coffee, among others. But we have never seen loans taken by livestock keepers being written off by any government in this country. We also have problems of diseases in the livestock sector. My colleagues have said much about it. We now really need disease-free zones in this country. That has cost us something very big: It has snatched our European Union share of livestock marketing and livestock products. We should borrow from Botswana, which has been given as a good example. I have visited Botswana several times. I have seen the disease control free zones where there has to be that cleaning exercise to avoid diseases and contamination issues in each and every immigration entry point. On the issue of drought, livestock keepers have been suffering year in, year out. You can see what is happening now. The Government has just declared it a national disaster. Livestock keepers are always the first casualties. They suffer a lot in so many aspects. They take loans and buy livestock which die and they have to repay. Now, they do not have the capital to do it. We see some of the county governments have really been trying. I have seen Marsabit County trying to buy livestock from their people and use it as food because livestock is also taken as food security. There has not been proper coordination on that. After the drought, what next? There should be a mechanism for restocking. Otherwise, you will not have those communities surviving. The other problem is research on livestock. We have so many parastatals and organisations like Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Production Institute (KEVEVAPI), Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Kenya Meat Commission (KMC), Kenya Co-operative Creameries (KCC) – some dealing with milk, others dealing with meat and others dealing with research. But the problem is that we have been having a lot of missing linkages; those parastatals being put in the wrong places. Those dealing with livestock are not in the same ministry. Every Government comes and goes, but they keep reshuffling those institutions and not putting them under one ministry. I hope with the passage of this Bill, we are going to have all those institutions that deal with livestock and livestock products under one roof. That will enable efficient and effective coordination of the livestock sector in this country. The livestock industry, in terms of the economic state of this country, contributes 12 per cent of our GDP. I want to believe that given much emphasis, that 12 per cent can go up. We also need to do a lot of value addition to our exports. We have to do finished products like skin and hides, milk and meat. This issue of being told we have low quality meat because of “A”, “B”, “C” and “D” should come to an end. I am very sure putting everything under one ministry or body is going to help with that. 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."
}