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{
    "id": 784152,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/784152/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 346,
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    "content": "because they have to queue for it. They have come to believe that it has become part and parcel of their lives. If food does not come, they sleep hungry. Those people are even prepared to leave the identity cards or sell everything just to get food. This Senate must interrogate the function of agriculture. One of the other things that came to the Senate was the storage of food. Why is the Ukambani part of this country affected by aflatoxin? The reason is that the granary in that part of lower eastern does not have driers. There are driers in parts of rift valley like Kitale and Trans Nzoia. Why have the people of lower eastern been discriminated? Even the most ordinary Kenyan, the mama mboga that you were referring to, knows what a granary is. They keep their food for a bad day like the people in the Bible who were told they would have seven years of plenty and seven years of drought and they kept food for seven years of drought. We end up with the same problem every successive season. Last week, Mombasa Road was closed because of floods. The irony is that we will have drought after two months. Last week we were in the middle of heavy rains yet there were trucks upon trucks written “Clean Water” distributing water in Nairobi. This matter will not be addressed by this Bill but by a deliberate policy. I do not know which committee this Bill rests but we must address this in a little more detailed and think about the children of this country. The Constitution provides for the right to food. Article 53(1)(c) states that every child has a right to basic nutrition, shelter and health care. Do we as Senators and Members of Parliament believe in this? If we did, even the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) that my Chair here, who is the Senator for Mandera County, presented would have addressed this concern. As we address the Four Pillars of the Jubilee Government, one of which is Food Security, what is our answer to the question? Does every child in Kenya have the right to basic nutrition, shelter and health care? The answer is “no.” Again, I am unhappy about this definition. There is maize, beans, wheat, rice, meat, sugar cooking et cetera as usual. There is nothing like cassava, bananas, millet and other drought-resistant crops that would help in semi-arid areas. The Senator for Wajir, Dr. Ali, was right to say that in discussing some of the issues about food security, we forget that there are persons in this country who see rain as the tenth wonder of the world. How have we factored this in law? Just a month or two months ago, the Maasais drove over 10,000 head of cattle to Makueni County. There were clashes everywhere and cows died. For that community, livestock is everything and it is their wealth. That came up during debate on the money the Government had set aside for El Niño rains. Livestock should be bought from the farmers so that their animals do not die. Instead, we banned the movement of livestock in Nairobi as if the Maasais who come to Nairobi are interested in walking along Tom Mboya Street. That was not their business because they were just looking for grass. If they had grass in Kajiado, they would not come to Nairobi City. Some of the concern this Bill should seek to address is how to deal with the special category of Kenyans who keep livestock. We need to think about how we can store grass somewhere because we can. How much will it cost to store grass from Laikipia and many other places and distribute it at a reasonable cost to the Maasais who 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."
}