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"id": 877933,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/877933/?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",
"slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
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"content": "Corruption by a small or a big person is the same. Corruption is sin. Corruption committed by a nurse or a clinical officer in Pumwani Maternity Hospital to collude with people who are stealing children and selling them is corruption. They do not have to have a big person or one has to be elected. As the Bible says, a big and a small sin must get equal punishment. Therefore, when we sit, as a House here, and say that we are only looking for big men, or what is now being called in this country, cartels and sharks and big fish, that is absolute nonsense and is circus. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is nothing like a bigger sin, every sin is sin. If you steal Kshs10 billion and you steal Kshs1 million, is a sin. It could be that Ksh1 million was everything to somebody else and the Kshs10 billion was everything to everybody. Let us not encourage this mentality that people have this country. If a child steals Kshs10 today, it means tomorrow, he can steal Kshs1,000, the other day Kshs10,000, and the other week, Kshs10 billion. Therefore, we cannot come here and excuse any level of corruption in our country. Secondly, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I do not agree with the reaction of the Ministry of Agriculture to the question of having said that there was delivery of maize. I will conclude in another five minutes. I do not agree with them that the reaction to that is now to make it impossible for poor farmers to deliver maize to National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB). First, those farmers have not been paid since 2017. There are people who are still begging for payment from the Government since 2017. Thirdly, the regulations that have now been put in place have made impossible to deliver maize to the NCPB silos. If you go to my place, very few people have title deeds. They are now being punished that they cannot deliver their maize to NCPB because they must show title deeds. Where will they get the title deeds in Embobut? Where has the Government provided title deeds in Embobut or in most places of Kerio Valley or all those parts of Elgeyo-Marakwet County? Fourth, where we come from, and Sen. (Prof.) Kamar can tell you, when someone wants to lease land from the neighbour, they do not enter into written agreements. They just tell someone “this year, I am unable to till my land, take the five or 10 acres and give me something, so that I can pay school fees and continue”. Now, we are being asked to go and look for lease agreements. We are asking people who have never gone to school to do so. They do not know what a school is. You are telling them to look for a lawyer so that they can update lease agreements so that they can deliver their maize. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, a Government that punishes its own farmers is a Government that is destined to food insecurity. We, as a nation, must be careful on how we treat those people. We cannot treat them using regulations and rules that have been passed in white collar offices in Nairobi. The reality on the ground, the people who are dealing with maize farmers must go and sit with them in Trans-Nzoia County. They must go to Cherangani, Moiben, or Kwanza and sit with them and apply processes and systems that are responsive to the desires of poor farmers in this country. You cannot punish them by virtue of not having certain legal documents that are not easily accessible in the Government or creating processes that are impossible. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Government cannot now justify that they will not subsidize fertilizer this year as a result of the challenges they had last year. If the 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."
}