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{
    "id": 784078,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/784078/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 272,
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    "content": "like farmers in rural areas who can go to a farm, dig up herbs, eat and proceed with life. This challenge contributes to more crimes and unemployment in urban areas. Have you seen how people walk from Kibera to Mombasa Road in search of employment opportunities? They walk day in, day out, looking for jobs. These jobs are not even guaranteed. They go in the morning to a company. For example, they get to a gate of the Mastermind Tobacco Company. Sometimes they are told the company is not operating because machines have broken down and that they are being serviced. Our people in urban areas are suffering. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Constitution states that those people have a right to food. Therefore, the Government must do everything humanly possible to ensure that they get food and are free of hunger. It is not just food, but food of acceptable quality and quantity. I suppose persons in this country, including myself and others who come from rural areas and or very difficult backgrounds understand what it means to go without food. Although I have not read Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri’s history when he was a young boy, but I know he understands what I am talking about. I have gone without food so I know it is a challenge. This Bill is about Government’s responsibility to respect, protect and fulfil that right to food. It also ensures availability, accessibility, adaptability and acceptability of food for all Kenyans by making provisions of access to production, resources, income and support. This Bill compels the Government to provide food even during famine as we have seen in some parts of the former Rift Valley and other parts of the country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, when the World Trade Organisation (WTO) deals with matters of whether there should be subsidy or not, we know protection of public interest in Europe and USA is excluded in the WTO Act. They take it very seriously that they must do everything humanly possible to protect their farmers who produce food for the sake of the country. In this country, we take it for granted or as an assumption that farmers in the North Rift will continue working hard to produce maize. I come from the North Rift, sometimes prices of maize can go down and the cost of production can be so high. We ask ourselves: “did we sign a contract with anybody that we must grow maize?” Those farmers do so without a lot of obligation and passion to feed this nation. If you tell them to stop planting maize and do dairy, passion fruits and other crops that can give them a lot of money, they cannot change. You realize the patriotism of the farmers of the North Rift in Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu, Kakamega, Bungoma and Nakuru counties. They play a major role in producing food for this country. That environment is now being threatened although there is some deliberate effort to salvage the situation. We now have subsidized fertiliser. We have a situation where Government guarantee prices for maize being bought. However, that is not enough. We must address the issue of land. Where will be the land to grow maize? What is the land control system in this country? Are we doing things sufficiently to ensure that farmers or owners of large tracts of land are not selling their land to other people who then subdivide it? In Uasin Gishu County, for example, places like Moiben and Soi which have large tracts of land for producing maize and wheat are being threatened by land 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."
}