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{
    "id": 774952,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/774952/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 216,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13156,
        "legal_name": "Mutula Kilonzo Jnr",
        "slug": "mutula-kilonzo-jnr"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. You are also my neighbour from far, and I hope you can join us in the former eastern province. I rise to support this Bill. I have about seven comments to make. One, this Bill is timely, and I support the Senator for Nakuru for the contribution, particularly on the fact that this is a devolved function. I am not certain whether in drafting this Bill we have captured the idea. We might in the process create an executive body that is managing this function and at the same time, lose the function itself to National Government. I am also not certain - maybe the Majority Leader can confirm - whether this country has an irrigation policy. The irrigation policy ought to dictate what we need to do. Thirdly, the question of whether to irrigate or not to irrigate reminds me of Shakespeare: “To be or not to be, that is the question”. It is not because we lack water or rain; it is mismanagement of our water resources which includes forest. The Senator has mentioned that unless we can manage forests and water reservoirs, it appears we will not irrigate. The way we are cutting trees in Mau forest, we will not have water in the Mau river, upstream and downstream. I am glad that the new Cabinet Secretary, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr. Keriako Tobiko, the first riot act he read is on forests, since we must conserve water to have irrigation. On the question of how to manage irrigation, I actually went to Sen. Murkomen’s County during the campaigns and discovered that they are doing one of the dams that the national Government is doing. One of the problems about all the irrigation schemes in Kenya is acquisition of land. We should have enough money to acquire land to do proper dams, unlike what is probably happening in your county, Mr. Speaker, where they are doing small water pans for Kshs3 million to Kshs4 million which is not helping. Mr. Speaker, Sir, somebody mentioned the Budget Policy Statement (BPS). One of the things that we have concern with in the BPS is that the national Government has issued a directive that they may start rationing water because the levels at Masinga and Sondu-Miriu dams have gone down. Is it possible that Kenya needs to find another method of generating electricity so that we can use that water for domestic consumption? Masinga Dam - I do not know where Sen. Wambua has gone – does not benefit the people of Kitui or Ukambani in general because there is no irrigation component. On Thwake Dam, the Kshs36 billion project the national Government is doing, we have insisted - even though we are aware that it is in the interest of Kenya to do hydro - the people of Makueni, Kitui and Machakos counties should benefit from the irrigation component which must be amongst the top first or second layers. These are the issues that this Bill ought to address. On capacity building, under Article 199, we ought to capacitate counties to do large irrigation projects. The project in Elgeyo Marakwet at some point must either be done by Governor Kipchumba Murkomen or somebody else."
}