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"speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I rise to support this Bill. From the outset, I agree with Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr., that Sen. (Dr.) Zani should develop this Bill in a way that it encourages people and not counties to make money. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when you travel to Europe, particularly to Italy, you will find that people have converted their homes into tourism destinations. The government in that country has supported that initiative by classifying it as agri-tourism, where with any move for one to convert their home into an agri-tourism center, you register it. Once you have done that, you are given subsidies by the government. Consequently, you end up paying less taxes because you are creating more employment and, in the process, solving the biggest problem that we have in this country of unemployment. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when I briefly looked at this Bill, I realised that some of the penalties are more punitive than they are at encouraging innovation. If you travel to Eldoret today, there is a farmer called Kirwa who, a few years ago, was named as the best farmer in the country. I credit him for having taught me the most important thing on dairy farming. He converted his home into a local tourism-farming destination, where he trains farmers on dairy keeping and on how to develop dairy feeds. Therefore, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I would plead with the sponsor of this Bill to come up with very radical amendments, which I hope she will consider doing them. The amendments should take away the aspect of county governments making money from this Bill, to which this comes in as a way to classify certain areas as agri- tourism destinations. A good example is Narok, Samburu and Tsavo, where we have tourism destinations; and Narok is completely zoned as a tourist destination. The biggest challenge that we currently have in Narok – where you know we collect about Kshs2.1 billion from tourists visiting Maasai Mara – is that the farms next to the wildlife corridors are littered with white mabati roofs. This is because people have gone there and they have created towns. You will even find a street called Majengo on the doorstep of Maasai Mara. This is the same in every tourist destination. Therefore, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, what we ought to do in this legislation, is to try and empower counties to zone their areas where they intend to help farmers. Instead of putting white roofs in Sekenani, we should encourage the local people from the Maasai community to maintain their cultural activities so that when these foreigners come, they can enjoy our culture. However, what is happening now is that anyone who wants to live close there puts up hostels and houses. In fact, sometimes other hotels prefer to fly their tourists straight into Maasai Mara instead of going by road, because before 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."
}