Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 877931,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/877931/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 372,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 440,
        "legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
        "slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
    },
    "content": "are we not investing in the right place? There is a main problem. The Constitution says that the national Government’s responsibility is policy, but the policy framework that we have is a cake. Kenyans do not what is the agriculture policy like the Policy Paper No. 10 of 1963. You do not have such a guiding principle. A proper policy, understood by both national and county governments. This confusion is reflected in the recommendation of this Committee which tries to allocate what functions the county should do. Even when we did devolution functions, now we are still debating here that counties and national Government should take up their responsibilities because we came up with a devolved system of government. We have a Constitution, but the policy framework that we are operating in is not clear. If you do not allocate the person who is supposed to do his job, it becomes a no man’s job. Secondly, there is no money in the agriculture sector. Our investments in the agriculture sector do not reflect the results that we want. I know Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, you are a researcher, interested in matters of international trade just as I am. In the World Trade Organization (WTO) or in Europe, debate on agriculture is about subsidies. The part that has been safeguarded by all countries in the world is subsidies in agriculture. Agriculture and WTO battles between Europe and USA, between USA and China, is around agriculture. Everybody is trying to protect agriculture because food security is so strategic that even in the GAT Agreement it had to become an exception of the MFN Principle. This is one area that we, as a nation, have not sat down and asked ourselves, what the budgetary allocation for the agriculture sector is and which areas of the nation will plant which crops. If you look at these recommendations, you realize that one of the reasons why production has gone down is because the soil has become acidic, little research is being done in the country and we have very few agriculture extension officers. I know the Chairperson and the Vice Chairperson of this select Committee must have done a lot of research on this and listened to a lot of proposals on this. Why should county governments put up to Kshs300 million or Kshs400 million to school bursaries? Under what function do they give bursaries to high school and universities? Instead of hiring agriculture extension officers to help farmers produce agricultural products, sell in their markets and take their children to schools? We are killing the seed money that should go to solve the problem that people are facing by just giving token to our citizens. My concern is that, you will find some counties are building technical teachers’ colleges, medical schools, referral hospitals, secondary schools, putting seed money for building a university. If we took this money and just concentrated it on the agriculture sector, as counties, we will make a difference in the agricultural sector in the same way as the national level. If the policy framework was so clear so that you have a lean top and then the agriculture subsidy programme becomes clear that we are subsidizing fertilizer in the country and seeds to a certain level then that would help. The message that I would like our people to get is that the other issue that is lacking, particularly in the North Rift region is that we all rely on maize completely. The message that is now going round the place is that we need diversification in agriculture. It The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}