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"content": "agricultural and trade sectors. If we want warehousing to be in the private enterprise arena, let us say so. If we want it to be a public enterprise, let us say so. We should make sure that we are not setting up an organ that will fleece consumers and users of the facility. We have to ensure that it will assist in helping those who deal in cereals and other commodities, make it easier for them to move their wares from one part of the country to the other. As I conclude, there is something that, as the Senate, we need to address. Today, there was a screaming headline that this country is staring at a famine. We are staring at a famine because of a total miss-match of interests, lack of planning and focus. As we say that we are staring at a famine, Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri here can tell you that in his county, in my county and those western counties that are well watered with rain, food is rotting by the road side. These include bananas, potatoes, beans, oranges and many more. We have developed a dangerous national psyche of making Kenya believe that when there is a slight shortage of maize, then there is no food in the country; yet we have a lot of root crops, legumes and fruits. Madam Temporary Speaker, when you drive along Kisii County, sometimes even stopping at a bus stop is difficult because you will run over food. Why is the Government not buying food from those areas and moving it to areas in Narok, Kajiado and Kitui, where there is a shortage of food so that Kenyans can be fed? You will at times find that in areas like Kisii, Bungoma and counties in Nyanza, we do not have enough cattle for meat, whereas cows are dying in Maasai land. Why can the Government not buy and re- locate them from farmers at an appropriate time and take them to areas where there is dense population so that food can be passed across the country? When they start writing those screaming headlines, they are choreographed for profiteers. There is probably a ship from Mexico hanging off the Island of Pemba that will be docking any time with maize because a newspaper ‘screamed’ with a headline that there is a looming shortage of food. We must change this because farmers in Kitale and in Uasin Gishu, where you represent, are still holding maize in their granaries. Why can we not go and offer them the Kshs4,500 that we are offering a farmer in Mexico when we are offering our own farmers Kshs2,300 or Kshs2,400? That is why, Madam Temporary Speaker, if a law like this was properly done, we will then save your farmers, my farmers and everybody’s farmers the danger, the cost and the nightmare of storing food after production. This is because post-harvest losses to the farmers run up to 60-70 per cent. If we can control that by coordinating and keeping properly documented warehousing with records to the farmer and no losses, it even becomes easier for the farmer to simply walk into National Produce and Cereal Board (NPCB), pledge credit, take fertilizer and seeds; and plant knowing very well there is an off-take awaiting the production. With those qualified remarks, I support the Bill, subject to far-reaching discussions and amendments, so that we pass a law that is good for posterity and this country and will help this country move forward. Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker."
}