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{
    "id": 788161,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/788161/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 197,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kubai Iringo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1574,
        "legal_name": "Cyprian Kubai Iringo",
        "slug": "cyprian-kubai-iringo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I will follow suit with what my colleagues have said in support of the Bill. Once it is enacted, it will cure a lot of problems which have been bedeviling the National Irrigation Board. The Act which is governing the NIB today has been overtaken by events and was enacted a long time ago that it does not hold water anymore. That is why the NIB has never realised anything tangible which we can be proud of as a country. It is there in name, but the product of what has been irrigated and the areas we could be talking of are not there. Knowing that agriculture is the backbone of this country and the mainstay of households, it is very sad and disheartening when as a Government, we cannot put in place structures to ensure that this industry is sustained to the level where we do not beg food from other countries. It is a shame for Tanzania to give us food. It is a shame to import rice from Taiwan, India or Brazil, whereas we have very good soils which can grow rice in Mwea, Tana River and some parts of Nyanza. The problem is that we have mismanaged irrigation. When it rains, we cry foul that rains are sweeping away bridges, people and houses and inconveniencing everybody including the system and even the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. The rains then pour their waters into the ocean and lakes and we are left with nothing. Then erosion takes its toll on us. During droughts, the pitch of cries is the same as those during the rains. It is very sad when we have technocrats and educated people who could have designed dams and water pans for this country to benefit. I am happy that this Bill will bring life into the Board. It is going to sweep out the NIB and put in a new one with proper laws. If the current laws are the ones which make the Board toothless, let us hope that once we put this law into place, principal secretaries in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, who will be members of the board, will use their energies and offices to actualise what the Government intends to do through the Board. Just the other day when he was sworn in, the President talked of four pillars of his legacy and one of them was food security. We can never have food in this country without water and we have a lot of water, but we do not harvest it. We have TARDA. When you go to their offices in Nanyuki and Nyeri, you find them seated there. What they do is to just pass papers in the office. You find a paper just being taken around in circles. When Hon. Wamalwa was the CS for Water and Irrigation, we went all the way to Meru. He spent two days in Meru and one day in Tharaka- Nithi - three days in the greater Meru region - with all the leadership. We visited the various spots which had been earmarked for the construction of mega and small dams. The plans were drawn, everything was done and the Government said funding would be provided. To date, whatever was planned has never seen the light of day. Wamalwa is in another ministry. Somebody else in the same ministry is handling the issue and I do not know when it will see the light of day. The intentions of the Government and those of the President are there, but even if 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."
}