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{
    "id": 817936,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/817936/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 50,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "content": "I wish to give you a good example of what is happening in parts of Africa. Cote d’Ivoire, the former Ivory Coast, is a country in West Africa. The Government of Ivory Coast realised the value of the cashew nut tree and came up with an ambitious five-year plan. In 2013, Ivory Coast grew 350,000 tonnes of cashew nuts. By 2017, it doubled to 711,000 tonnes. By this year, they have a target of producing 750,000 tonnes. Today, Ivory Coast is the number one producer of cashew nut in the world. They have surpassed India because their Government realised the value of the cashew nut tree. Cashew nut is one of the highest foreign earners for Ivory Coast. In fact, they have labelled it the grey gold, like the way crude oil is referred to as black gold by the people of South Arabia. This industry in Ivory Coast has employed 1.5 million people directly and indirectly. This is because the Government came up with that ambitious plan and focused resources into this industry. So, my question is: why can we not as a country reallocate some funds and revive this industry? Today, at the Coast, we have one plant in Kilifi and another one, which stalled half way, in Kwale. The one in Kwale only requires around Kshs600 million to revive. This is what is happening in the country. If you look at what is happening in western Kenya with the sugar cane farming, all the industries have collapsed and yet we are focusing on the Big Four Agenda, and one of them is industrialisation. How can we achieve that when we have our own industries like the cashew nuts and sugar cane industries collapsing? We are focusing more on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) by putting billions of shillings in extending it. Why can we not suspend that and reallocate these funds to revive these industries? Cashew nut is a luxury nut and from what Hon. Mwadime said, when you fly KQ to Mombasa, if you are lucky, you get a small packet of mixed nuts. The other day, I took time to count the number of nuts in that packet and you will be shocked in that packet, there were 14 macadamia nuts and six cashew nuts. This tells you that it is a luxury product yet we have closed our eyes and are letting it go down the drain. It is my humble request that as a House, we put a lot of focus to revive these plants so that we can start realising the Big Four Agenda, which 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."
}