Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 887435,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/887435/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 325,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Saboti, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Caleb Luyai",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2740,
        "legal_name": "Caleb Amisi Luyai",
        "slug": "caleb-amisi-luyai"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I was one of the interested members. I proposed a Motion of Adjournment. I want to thank my friend for moving swiftly. He was given the first chance to move the Motion. At the infancy of our nation, there were three challenges that we grappled with. Those were ignorance, disease and hunger or poverty. It is very shameful that 50 years down the line, we are still grappling with the three challenges after Independence. The images that have gone viral of emaciated human beings from Baringo and Turkana counties in a nation that is well-endowed with natural resources, agricultural land, good soil and climate is something that this nation needs to worry about. Ironically, I come from a constituency where farmers are spending sleepless nights wondering where to take their produce and harvest or to sell their maize. Most farmers in Trans Nzoia have lost their maize to weevils because of lack of market. This is the case and yet the Government is not able to buy from the nearby county and supply the maize to the people of Turkana who are our neighbours. It is a shame and a pity for our nation. It is a devastating state that we have never witnessed. We want to bring this discourse to other Members so that we find a lasting solution to this perennial problem that has be-devilled this country for many years. As our countrymen languish in poverty, the question we need to ask, as Members of Parliament, is about the people we appoint to the Executive namely, the Cabinet Secretary (CS) and the State officers in-charge. We cannot have a knee-jerk reaction to problems we face as a country. It is just the other day that the Government decided to allocate Kshs2 billion towards the programme of mitigating the effects of the drought. One wonders why we have a whole Ministry in charge of such programmes. It is just dishonourable that the CSs who are in charge of various State departments that are supposed to have a clear plan on how to predict, monitor and respond in the quickest time possible were not able to do anything. Our CSs just move around in Government vehicles and fly our national flag. Previously, we had good Ministers who had good plans and had left a legacy in their ministries. Currently, we have CSs who are idle. They have no clear plans in the respective ministries that they hold. They only come out on knee-jerk reactions. It begs the question on the kind of people we appoint to our offices. We even have an administration hierarchy up to the village which is supposed to give us reports on the looming hunger and drought. In a neighbouring country in Africa, a minister resigned just because a train caused an accident. He was not the driver, the conductor or the owner of the train. In Kenya, ministers would rather die--- The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}