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{
    "id": 788094,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/788094/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 130,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Mulu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1955,
        "legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
        "slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker, for giving me a chance to support this important Bill. When you look at the history of this country, you will realise that for most of us who went to school in the 1970s, agriculture was a very important sector in this country. During those days, it was the mainstay of the economy. This was basically because of the role it played in terms of contributing to the Gross Domestic Product of this country. At the same time, it created employment for Kenyans because of the foreign exchange we got from agricultural products. By then, there were famous irrigation schemes. I can remember in my early classes of geography, I heard about Bura, Perkerra, Mwea and Ahero irrigation schemes. With time, we have heard of other irrigation schemes like Wikithuki in Mwingi North and Galana. As I look at this Bill, I have asked myself why irrigation has failed to some extent in this country. Could it be because of the legal framework or other reasons? As we discuss the legal framework - because that is what we do as a House - it is important for Members of Parliament, through our oversight role, to seriously look at other factors ailing irrigation. I want to single out a few. Let us look at the aspect of implementation. For the last four years, this House has appropriated resources towards the irrigation sector. I can remember when I joined Parliament in 2013, the target of the Jubilee Government then was to have a million acres of land under irrigation. Over the last four years, we have not hit the target of 10,000 acres. The reason why we have not achieved that is not because of lack of a legal framework. As a country, we need to seriously think about the importance of irrigation, even as this important Committee pushes this Bill. We need what we call political goodwill, the right technical framework and human resource for this important component to kick off. We have an Irrigation Board in this country. Some of the challenges we have is that some Kenyans who are given leadership positions use them for personal gains and many of those irrigation schemes are seen as cash cows. We put a lot of resources there and nobody seriously uses them to benefit Kenyans. As I support this Bill, I think there is much more which needs to be done if we are to achieve food security in this country. We all know that in the Big Four Agenda, food security is an important component. Despite that, as Kenyans, we need to ask ourselves for how long we are going to rely on rain-feed agriculture because it has failed us. Research has shown that if we want to move forward in terms of food security, we must go the irrigation way and take advantage of technology. As a result, we will produce enough food for this country. It is a big shame for this country when we see a neighbouring country like Sudan or Brazil exporting sugar to us. Egypt also makes use of River Nile which is an important water resource originating from Uganda. We end up buying food from Egypt when River Nile passes through Uganda. As I support this Bill, it is important for this country to start looking at the other factors which make us not to utilize irrigation. 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."
}