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{
    "id": 774120,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/774120/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 251,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Ali",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. I wish to contribute to this Bill and say that I support it from the outset. The problem with Kenya is not writing good papers. We are very good at that and creating organisations which in the end do not implement anything. I hope that this Bill does not fall in the same category. We have the National Irrigation Board, but what has it done? The Bura Irrigation Scheme has been in existence for many years. In the early years it used to function very well and a lot of crops used to be produced. But if you go there now you will not find anything. There was the Ahero Irrigation Scheme where there used to be a lot of rice. What is there now? Nothing! The Mwea Irrigation Scheme used to be very good, but nowadays it has many problems. Irrigation is important to Kenya because it will ensure food security, but if we do things in piecemeal and give people small plots of land it might not be very helpful. I hope that the issue of large scale irrigation farms will be introduced, so that commercial farmers come into play and then the country will get enough food. Clause 5 (k), says that the authority, in collaboration with county governments and other stakeholders, promote the marketing and processing of crops, animal and fish products grown. There will be a lot of complications and infighting over who is supposed to be in charge of these. When you talk of marketing of crops, animals and fish, there will be a lot of problems. There are overlaps with the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC), the Horticultural Crops Development Authority (HCDA), the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA). Issues like these should be avoided. So, we need to do something in the Committee Stage to remove some of these things. I concur with what my friend, Sen. Cheruiyot, said about the issue of establishing the headquarters. Why do we want to establish the irrigation headquarters here? Why do we not take it to Bura, Hola, and Turkwell or wherever where irrigation schemes are in place? Do we want to do everything in Nairobi? That will not be very helpful. I also want to comment on the membership of the board that Sen. Cheruiyot also mentioned. We already have the chairman, the Principal Secretaries or their designate from the State Department of Irrigation, Finance and then we want to give the Cabinet Secretary (CS) to appoint seven more and allow the county governments to bring only two. The county governments should be allowed at least four out of the seven, so that there are three appointees of the CS and then there are other two from the Ministry. That The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}