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{
    "id": 788088,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/788088/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 124,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. ole Sankok",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13166,
        "legal_name": "David Ole Sankok",
        "slug": "david-ole-sankok"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Deputy Speaker, we have thousands of massive rivers in our country. Whenever there is rainfall, like what we have experienced in the past one month, there are floods everywhere. In Narok to be specific, we have had destruction of property as well as loss of lives because of this runoff water. In the northern area, which is arid, we have had a lot of runoff water which has caused destruction. If we would have tapped this runoff water, we would have avoided those floods, in addition to irrigating the very fertile areas in our country. The arid areas in this country are almost 75 per cent. It is a large chunk of land that could feed our population if we maximise the use of this land. The only thing that we need - we do not need fertilizer in those arid areas - is water. Egypt depends on us. They use water from River Nile to irrigate their farmlands and export fruits and vegetables to us and yet, we cannot tap on the waters that we donate to countries such as Sudan and Egypt. Hon. Speaker, we support this Bill because it will also reduce the conflict that we have been experiencing in our pastoral areas. We have been having conflicts mainly due to lack of pastures but, mostly, because of lack of water. If we have enough dams in our areas, then we will reduce the conflict. Cattle rustling has been made to look like a lesser crime. In cattle rustling, we have murders, displacement of people and rape. But we make it look a bit fairer. Once we have enough water in our dams and in the pastoral areas, we will reduce those conflicts. Hon. Deputy Speaker, many irrigation schemes have failed. The question that we have to ask ourselves even as we support this Bill is this: Why have we had this collective failure of all the irrigation schemes across the country, including the giant Bura Irrigation Scheme and many others? We establish entities to create jobs for our friends and relatives, but not with an intention of assisting farmers. We should hand over the management functions of those irrigation schemes to the farmers themselves. If we do not do that, we will be sitting in Nairobi, moving from one boardroom to another, moving from one conference to another, benchmarking in Egypt and Sudan, but we will always fail. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I support this Bill but we will talk to the Committee so that we can give the massive job of management of the irrigation schemes to farmers. Thank you very much, Hon. Deputy Speaker The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}