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{
    "id": 767492,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/767492/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 223,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Ali",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I know that this issue has been discussed since yesterday, but I need to say just one or two words. What happens usually when it comes to drought is that people talk of food security. In Kenya, we are usually very good at writing papers, but implementation of the same is usually a problem. In most ASAL areas, there is something called relief food, which is on and off throughout the year. That is usually a source of corruption for the provincial administration, who just sell those food rations and the local people mostly do not benefit. What surprises me is that for the last fifty or more years, we have been doing the same thing and the locals do not really benefit. So, what is the use of getting food rations which is thirty years old or so from the World Food Program, then you take it to the locals when it has already degenerated? This food is, by the way, causing a lot of diseases because of its nature. The food has been in stores for many years; you add a lot of preservatives causing aflatoxins. Northern Kenya nowadays has experienced many cases of cancer of the throat and liver diseases. These diseases are becoming very prominent of late because of these foods which have overstayed. What is the use of giving people food and you are literally killing them? Instead of doing that, would it not have been better if the money was put into other activities, helping women and youth groups to try and do businesses, whether it is livestock farming or any other business? That reminds me of the Chinese proverb “You give a poor man a fish and you feed him for a day. You teach him to fish and you give him an occupation that will feed him for a lifetime.” The relief food is like giving fish; the people get used to it and they do not want to do anything. It discourages them from doing anything. The other issue is about water. As the Senator just said earlier, water trucking in these arid areas is becoming a source of corruption. When it rains, the water runoff is so much; the floods go killing animals and that water is wasted. We are told of mega dams but I cannot call them mega dams because they become small dams. People just want to go, make small dams there, which they use to get the money and there are no follow-ups. These dams are not constructed where the animals will get pasture. So, these issues have been on and off, and you will hear of a mega dam of Kshs1 billion in Marsabit. Eventually, the cost goes up to Kshs2 billion or Kshs3 billion and you find no water there. So what is the use of these mega dams? Where does this money go? So, these issues, which have been recurring on and off for the last several years mean that something needs to be done. In the last Coalition Government – or was it called the Grand Coalition Government – in 2007/2008, there was a Ministry of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands Development that was formed which was more or less somehow toothless. I want to urge the Government that it is now the right time to have the Ministry of Pastoralism so that the word “pastoralist” is in the mind of other Kenyans also. It should not be seen as if pastoralists are enemies or people who are of no use to this country. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes"
}