Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 821280,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/821280/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 174,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, the NCPB is the agent through which the Government gives fertilizer subsidy. So, they are obligated to know if you have given fertilizer to the distinguished Senator for West Pokot County to plant maize on 100 acres, he cannot turn round and deliver maize grown on 800 acres without being asked questions. The NCPB has slept on its job and is not working. In Bungoma County, I have seen parts of the granaries of NCPB are now garages where people are repairing cars when famers cannot deliver maize anywhere. In perspective, Ronald Reagan who was a President of the United States of America (USA) once addressed an American caucus and said that he was very excited to learn that Third World countries would suffer severe food shortage. It excites an American President because Third World countries, including Kenya, were going to suffer severe food shortage. He then added: “It means that we will feed them. Once we feed them, we will do anything with them”. You can imagine that kind of arrogance from our friends. True, whoever feeds you controls you. If you have no food in the home, even as a man who is the head of the family, you even feel afraid of going home. I have no doubt that this Motion will go through and the facts will come out in the enquiry that we will carry out. This House enjoys phenomenal confidence from the public. Kenyans believe in this Senate. They believe that we can crack and solve problems that we have. I encourage Members that the nine Members put in the Committee are only in observance of the Standing Orders. With your permission, when we are visiting counties to find out what is going on, any Member here can ask your office to allow him be part of the team that will visit the countryside. We want to know why a farmer in Kisii County suffers even more when he has a bumper harvest. Why a farmer in Uasin Gishu County has to walk to the streets of Eldoret Town and make violent statements in order to get the attention of the State to protect him as a farmer who feeds the country? In the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries, the farmer is the most respected and pampered person in society because he toils and moils from morning to evening to feed the rest. The white collar people who sit in offices sipping coffee and smoking away the whole afternoon must rely on that farmer in gumboots and overalls for their comfort. We want to restore the position of dignity, respect and confidence of the farmer in this country. Big farms are still found in Rift Valley. In the old days, we used to have colleagues who would finish university and they would tell us to stay in Nairobi City as they went home to help their fathers to manage farms. Today, nobody thinks that direction. If you ask some young men leaving university what they will do, they tell you that they will hustle. They do not even know the word “hustle” means stealing. The ageing parents are unable to run the farms because there is nothing to attract their children to remain on the farms and feed this nation. We want this Senate to stand in unison and patriotism to help the farmer in this country. I am encouraged that maize is being dealt with in this Motion. We have the"
}