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{
    "id": 922291,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/922291/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 303,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 440,
        "legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
        "slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
    },
    "content": "developed and disguised to protect matters corruption, yet the real corruption is the policies that are meant to stifle the farmer to create room for a foreign farmer to bring maize to this country. I met the people of Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and told them that they were aiding corruption by allowing people to import maize to this country and making it impossible for farmers and those who want to assist small-scale farmers to deliver the maize to NCPB. As we speak, farmers from Moiben Constituency and Trans Nzoia have been taken through court processes. Their mistake is that they delivered maize from their farms and they do not look like they are rich. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, one farmer called Ms. Victoria who comes from Moiben Constituency and has roots in my county has been taken through court process with her children. The only mistake she made is to farm thousands of acres and assisting farmers from the neighbourhood to carry the maize to the store. The other mistake is that she did not look rich enough or like a rich person. The people who were questioned said: “The argument that I saw on television is that she was building a good house and she lives in the village. How did she get Kshs200 million? What makes her qualify for the Kshs200 million payments?” That became a chorus across the country. Last year, farmers were extremely frustrated and the real importers of maize were never taken to any court. They were never arrested or questioned despite the Report that came to this House stating that some people who owned no single piece of land delivered a lot of maize to the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) store in Bungoma. The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation should tell us if the farmers will go through the same madness that we saw last year now that they are almost harvesting their maize. Will the farmers in rural areas, who do not have legal agreements, title deeds from their late parents or signed leases, be subjected to these strictures, to make it impossible for them to deliver maize to NCPB? Are they going to use that to block them from supplying maize then later say that the maize in the reserve has been exhausted, so as to create room for cartels to import maize? That is an issue that must be addressed to prevent them from asking for a licence to import maize in a few months from now, yet this country has enough farmers who are running away from planting maize because of the frustrations that they go through. I agree with Sen. (Prof.) Kamar. We must rethink if there is need of having the Committee on Implementation or whether the functions of the Committee on Implementation can be carried out by the departmental Committees that we have. Those Committees can summon the Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Agriculture and Irrigation and have him respond to the questions. We know that the Clerk of this House wrote to the CS. They need to come here and tell us how far they have gone with the implementation of the recommendations that came from this august House. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir."
}