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{
    "id": 885411,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/885411/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 417,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "Yesterday but one, I said that the President should declare the current famine situation in the country a national disaster and an emergency and deploy the military doctors to the affected counties to help save lives. This is an indictment because the failure of a rainy season should not be a reason for Kenyans to die. There are countries of the world that do not receive rain for even 10 years. The Sahel Region, parts of Australia, Namibia and many countries go for some times up to 10 years without a drop of rain. So, the lack of rain or the failure of a rainy season cannot be a reason or an excuse for us to let our citizens die due to lack of food and water. In fact, I was amused to read a tweet from a person whose name I cannot remember. They said that the food crisis in Kenya should not be a crisis of Kenyans not accessing food but a crisis of how to sell and export the food we produce. Now we are looking at Kenyans and everybody is giving an excuse. I have seen those concerned saying that the pictures we are seeing are pictures taken from South Sudan and Ethiopia, which I do not think is true. Assuming that was the case, then why are we having high-level Government meetings to discuss a crisis that they think is not a crisis? We have a crisis on our hands. I want to single out Turkana County which gets the second highest allocation of money from this Senate after Nairobi City County. The County Government of Turkana, even without support from the national Government, can afford food subsidy for every family in their County. It can save those families from this disastrous situation. My colleague, the Senator for Turkana County, can bear me out. Today, I saw a tweet from the Governor of Turkana County saying that the information is exaggerated. If it is exaggerated, what is the truth? What is it that is not exaggerated? How many people are hungry? How many people are dying? How many people are destitute? We want this cycle of embarrassments, of people dying due to hunger, to be part of our history and not part of our contemporary activities. It is a shame that a country with a Kshs3 trillion budget can still have people dying because they cannot access fresh water. When you attend public meetings, everybody is offered three to four bottles of water, they drink each bottle halfway and leave it there. We can take this water to our compatriots in Turkana, Samburu, Isiolo and all those counties. This also destroys the fallacy that things are always better where a Head of State comes from. Baringo County hosted the President of this country for 24 years. Why are the people of Baringo County eating rats? Why are they dying? Why are they going 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."
}