Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 873143,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/873143/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 155,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "In another set of minutes, something we alluded to yesterday, when we were talking here, the same Inter-Ministerial Committee sat and made another decision in a period when farmers in the constituency of the Senate Majority Leader, Sen. (Prof.) Kamar’s, my constituency and everywhere in the west of Kenya are harvesting maize. They directed the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) and the Government to import 4 million bags of maize from Mexico and buy 1.5 million bags from Kenyan farmers. Honestly, where is the logic? The Kenyan farmer is harvesting, his maize which is always cheaper, they had recommended Kshs3,200 per bag and this Committee decides that the Board buys 4 million bags of maize from Mexico and limit the Kenyan farmer to 1.5 million bags. You can understand the exhibition of anger and outrage from the farmers when we met them in Eldoret. We went through the same everywhere. Mr. Speaker, Sir, as we sit here and debate this issue, we may recall that the distinguished Senator for Elgeyo Marakwet chaired the Senate Committee on Devolved Government in the last Parliament and we sat in Mombasa as a whole House and he gave us statistics that every county in this country has some National Cereals Board’s silos, except Tharaka Nithi County. We recommended that all those silos be handed over, being a devolved function, to the counties where they are domiciled so that they are able to be managed, but nothing ever happened. What is happening today is that the National Cereals Boards are played by the managers who lease to anybody they want without accounting. When we asked the CS how much the leasing of cereals boards to traders, millers and everybody else generates for the Government, they do not know and do not account. This is the mess in which we are. I urge the Jubilee Government that since you have committed yourself to the Big Four Agenda with food security as the most important thing in your agenda; if you surely cannot protect or pay the farmer and if you want to subsidise the Mexican farmer and leave the Kenyan farmer, then what game are we playing as a country? Mr. Speaker, Sir, we want after this Motion - I have no doubt the overwhelming support we enjoy as a House on this - that implementation must follow. This is so that we see that all these recommendations and those people who walked away with Kshs18 billion taxpayers’ money should not only be prosecuted but the money recovered from them under the doctrine of tracing. Whether that money is mixed with other money or not, it should be traced and be restored to the rightful owner; the people of Kenya. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to leave the floor for others to contribute. However, I want to point out that we visited Bungoma and a record came from the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation stating that 21 mysterious people were paid Kshs563 million in three weeks for delivery of maize that was non-existent. Their records show somebody Wanjiru wa Reuben had farmed 800 acres of maize in Bungoma. Sen. Orengo, since you know Bungoma, is there any farmer with 100 acres there? None! So how did Wanjiru wa Reuben farm 800 acres there?"
}