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"id": 877932,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/877932/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": {
"id": 440,
"legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
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"content": "can come about if the Ministry of Agriculture had a programme on research and market research. When the President went to China and came back, the information was that he has opened a market in China for horticulture products. Nobody came back and told the citizens that they need to produce this number of horticultural products. This are the seeds we are providing and the market guarantee is in this or that country. What is the role of our Ambassadors out there, when we talk about looking for market for our agricultural products? When Ambassadors of other countries come to this country, their first assignment is to look for market for their products. When the American Ambassador is sitting here, he is thinking about what security equipment they will sell to this country. That is the same to European Ambassadors. They want to know the market of goods that they manufacture in their countries that they can sell in this country. Our ambassadors must be fast to take up opportunities for our agricultural products out there. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, my first proposal to this nation is that the Cabinet Secretary (CS) in the Ministry of Agriculture, other than all these conversations, even these stories you are saying we want to have a corruption conference, we want to have this, corruption is a consequence. We should first invest in what is important to us. We should first have a conference on agriculture to discuss the things that bedevil the agricultural sector and agree on what is the policy that will guide this country and what is the target. What are we doing in potatoes, pyrethrum, cashewnuts, macadamia, avocado and tomatoes? What value addition are we put to mangoes, bananas and paw paws in Kerio Valley, where I come from? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if I was the CS of Agriculture of this day, my main responsibility would be to put in place a policy framework that would guide counties on what they want to do, so that when we sit at the Senate, and we are dealing with conditional grants to various parts of the country, we will know that a condition grant that goes to Siaya County, deals with sisal, to Tharaka-Nithi County might deal with issues of cotton and Trans-Nzoia County will work on research of matters of maize so that we can audit ourselves and ask if we are achieving the Maputo Protocol of 10 per cent funding to agriculture as a nation, when we cumulatively look at our resources that goes to the county and at national level. These are the integral issues that we must talk about in the agricultural sector. On the question of storage of goods, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when we were doing transfer of functions as a Senate, we said that counties should be able to build their stores but even silos must be able to transferred to counties because these are storage facilities. Therefore, I agree with the Committee when they proposal that these transfers must go to the counties. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the proposals of this Committee was to deal with matters corruption and particularly, in so far as importation and storage of maize, and allocation of that market quota that citizens of this country could deliver. I agree with the Committee that this process was abused and there was corruption. However, I do not agree with the Senate Minority Leader that corruption becomes corruption because of a big man. To me, that is the silly mentality that has driven this country in a circus. 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."
}