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{
    "id": 736653,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/736653/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 286,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Wamunyinyi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 291,
        "legal_name": "Athanas Misiko Wafula Wamunyinyi",
        "slug": "athanas-wamunyinyi"
    },
    "content": "what would be the problem? When we harvest, we take the produce to the National Cereals and Produce Board where the Government has reserves for the nation. We get it back very expensively through a packet of unga or even from local millers at home. It has become very difficult. Like I said earlier, we also grow sugarcane. We produce sugarcane in Mumias, Nzoia and many factories in our region. The ordinary peasant at home cannot afford to buy a kilogramme of sugar. We even feel it ourselves. We cannot afford the price of sugar which is very high. A packet of milk, which we used to buy at Kshs 30 is now retailing at about Kshs 70. Something must be seriously wrong in our country. Either it is because of bad policies or we have a non- caring administration in place that does not care about what happens to its citizens. All those problems arise partly because of the reasons I have stated. There has to be a way of formulating policies which would address the interests of Kenyans. Some of the laws which are proposed here, and which I thought would also have been proposed, should address the issues directly affecting the people of Kenya. I notice from the complaints back at home that the cost of producing maize is very high at the moment. If the Government had put in place measures to enable farmers to get fairly and reasonably priced farming inputs, particularly for those who produce cereals, it would go a long way in helping Kenyans and our farmers, so that they can increase productivity. This would ensure that we have adequate stocks and the people are helped to produce more. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, similarly, when we were young - I know you are a little younger than me, but when we were young, we used to have field extension officers for veterinary and crop farming who went around advising farmers on proper farming techniques to enhance production and quality of our produce. These days, you do not see them. What happened? Where did they go? Where has the Government taken them? They are not there to help farmers in the countryside to produce enough food. This is something that is necessary. If you can control the prices or introduce subsidies and give farmers free seeds and farm inputs, it would help to fill our granaries and get more food for our people in stores. Therefore, we should deal with the issue of prices. But as long as you want such an important aspect of the Kenyans’ lives to be in a free market economy and the law of demand and supply, then you will be killing these Kenyans. You do not care about them. In many countries, administrations take care of their people by introducing cushioning measures to enable the citizens to undertake production at fair costs. This enables them to run operations without getting into loses. I am unable to grow maize these days because of the cost of farm inputs. Seeds and fertiliser are very expensive. Sometimes the rains are unreliable. Some few years back, rains used to be predictable. This is something else someone needs to tell us about. What happened to the predictable rain patterns? We used to know when the rains would come. We ploughed in February and somewhere around 15th March, there was a lot of rainfall. What did we do to it? Is it this Government that has caused this problem, that rains do not come at the right time when we expect them? It no longer comes on 15th of March! This is something that must be explained because when we ploughed using oxen, we knew the rains were coming on specific dates. We would plough and put maize in the soil and wait for the rains and the rains came as expected it. Something is wrong with our administration in Kenya that has caused all these problems. We must be working towards ensuring that this administration that is causing a lot of suffering to Kenyans, that even makes rainfall unpredictable, is removed from office. We must do something about it. 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."
}