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{
    "id": 922315,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/922315/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 327,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof).Ongeri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 124,
        "legal_name": "Samson Kegeo Ongeri",
        "slug": "samson-ongeri"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to also thank Sen. (Prof.) Kamar for bringing this Statement. Year in, year out, a Kenyan small-scale or large scale farmer faithfully tills land to produce food that can be put on the table for this country. The population of this country has grown from 7 million in 1963 and we are now approaching 50 million Kenyans. The Ad Hoc Committee on Maize went about ensuring that all the issues that bedeviled the farmer were put on the table; when we went to Eldoret where we had a special session there. This farmer faithfully waits for the subsidies in fertilizer and other materials like seed to be put at strategic points, where they can come out, plough and plant. I have witnessed in Kisii, Nyamira, Trans Nzoia and Uasin Gishu counties cases where people waited desperately for the subsidized fertilizer to arrive. However, it arrived when the rains had already gone. They struggled to take loans from the banks and small institutions. Some borrowed from shylocks to plant. Regretfully, we are now being told that somebody has decided to import maize from Mexico. This is a very sad situation. If China and India can feed over 1.5 billion and 1.4 billion people respectively and have surplus for export, why can Kenya not do the same? I am crying out for that small-scale farmer who has put all his or her investment in growing food for this country. However, instead of getting support from the Government that he or she supported faithfully, he or she is now getting disappointment galore. Agriculture is a devolved function and, therefore, food security can only be realized if the farmer is motivated. We cannot continue with this cavalier way of doing things; that we want to import because we want to enrich a few cartels, who have strategically placed themselves in a place where they can bring in and dampen the market. There is still maize grains in ghalas or stores of farmers who have kept that maize there in the hope and expectation that the Government or the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) would buy it. That has not happened. Fortunately, we had some good rains. The little money farmers had or borrowed has invested again in growing the food, yet they are staring at the stuck reality that they may never be able to sell the current crop which is in the farms. It is only about one or two months. I agree that any nation must be alive to the Strategic Grain Reserves. These Strategic Grain Reserves are arrived at after careful due diligence study of the available stocks of that particular grains, in this case maize. That is a matter that normally finds its way to the Cabinet, which expresses its decision through the Ministry of Agriculture and 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."
}