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{
    "id": 90886,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/90886/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 179,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mututho",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 97,
        "legal_name": "John Michael Njenga Mututho",
        "slug": "john-mututho"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Motion. In supporting, I wish to apologize for having not been in the House in time to support the Vote of the Ministry of Agriculture. My able deputy, however, did it on my behalf. This was as a result of an emergency in Naivasha. Having said that, I want to limit myself to the actual situation. Observing Standing Order No.81, I want to say that I was a hard working officer in that Ministry 32 years ago. The other day I was driving and I saw a vehicle which was ten years old then; GK 914L, a Landover, still serving. That is a 44-year old vehicle and it is expected to be serving in the Ministry of Livestock Development. The other time when we were campaigning for YES I travelled to North Eastern and realized that most of those former range management offices have been converted into district headquarters and District Commissioners (DCs) and Provincial Commissioners (PCs) are enjoying the services. That notwithstanding, I went to Isiolo and the livestock holding ground and the big vehicles that used to transport animals are all gone. The import of this or the short and tall of this is that this Ministry has been cannibalized to the bone. As a chair and having declared my interest, I want to state that even what they are doing now; 12.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a bonus. We are supposed to be net consumers of our resources yet these hard working and marginalized people are still able to do 12.5 per cent GDP. The situation has remained that way because of our perception that those who do not wear fancy suits like me and those who carry spears and walk around arid and rangelands are lesser mortals; and, that we who belong to the upper class belong to the civilized and western world. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I say this with a lot of bitterness because it is us who can afford to eat the meat. The people who keep livestock can no longer afford to buy meat and consume it themselves. All that this Ministry is asking is for us who sit in the ivory towers to consider disease free zones so that the steak you like enjoying in steak houses and burger houses can be proper. Livestock producers themselves will not afford to eat that meat. It is for your benefit. That is why we fully support an elevated budget to this Ministry, given the wide scope of what they are expected to do. Drought hits the poorest hardest. There are no mitigating measures. The boreholes which we dug in the 1970s and 1980s for livestock no longer belong to the Ministry. The fire breaks no longer function. Thank God we do not have bush fires anymore because we do not have pasture."
}