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{
    "id": 852802,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/852802/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 475,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Seneta",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 611,
        "legal_name": "Mary Yiane Senata",
        "slug": "mary-yiane-senata"
    },
    "content": "is suffering. Therefore, I am happy to see that an allocation of Kshs1.85 billion will go to 45 counties in our country. I will support this Bill because of this. This is the second phase of this support. I want to believe that these grants going to the urban support projects in our counties will serve the purpose intended. These grants are coming from development partners, that is, the Government of Sweden, the European Union (EU) and the World Bank. The development partners must see the benefit of the conditional grants and loans that they give to the people of Kenya whom they intend to help. Therefore, I hope that counties will target the priorities in their urban areas and use the money for urban support projects wisely. If an urban area does not have public toilets or recreational activities, they should be given first priority. We should not just put money into roads or bus parks when other urban areas do not have sewerage systems. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, if you go Kitengela, for example, it is very populated, yet it does not have a sewerage system. Therefore, investors in exhausters get a lot of profits. Therefore, the allocation for urban support project should benefit people in the counties. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I am happy with these amendments because they propose to allocate Kshs1.5 billion to the Agricultural Sector Development Support Programme, which will go to the 47 counties. This money is intended to facilitate transformation of crops, livestock, and fisheries production into commercially oriented enterprises that ensure food and nutritional security. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for us to be food secure, we need to support farmers who are producing food. Therefore, counties should look into ways of supporting their farmers. Equally, they should look at agricultural products that will thrive in their counties. This is because we have counties where livestock has a potential to steer economic development. We also have other counties that have fish production, which can also be supported, while others have crops. Therefore, our counties should be very creative in what to support. I am happy with Makueni County. I recently watched a programme on Smart Farm where they talked about farmers being given subsidized Artificial Insemination (AI) services and educated on value addition in the production of mangoes. Therefore, we should encourage our farmers and give them subsidies, so that our counties can be food secure. Our counties should also look for local markets for their people. Some sections of our country, for example, the North Eastern part of Kenya, may not have a lot of maize. Therefore, we should have inter-county trade to create market for the people."
}