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{
    "id": 980987,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/980987/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 240,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "There are those who have raised exceptions that the headquarters of the Fish Marketing Authority ought not to be in Nairobi but in a fish producing area. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Members have space to move these amendments in future. However, the most important thing is to get the Fish Marketing Authority up and running and then we can talk about its headquarters and who should be included in the board of directors. Finally, why is fish and fisheries important? In the Constitution, we made a strange dichotomy between fishing and fisheries, which I hope will be captured in the proposed amendments. So, fishing is a national Government function but fishery is a county government function. It causes a lot of confusion. If you look at the parent Act, the Fisheries Management and Development Act, the definition does not bring clarity, it increases confusion. That is why you find that county governments will pass the buck or responsibility to the national Government and likewise the national Government when it comes to issues of fish because of that theoretical and academic definition of fishing and fisheries. How I hope that fishing and fisheries could be amalgamated so that there is clear responsibility on who handles it between the national Government and county governments. The Kenya Marine Fisheries and Research Institute (KMFRI) estimates that five million Kenyans, which could be 10 per cent of all Kenyans, depend on the fishery sector directly or indirectly. The National Treasury estimates that the demand for fish in Kenya is at 500,000 metric tons. This is an important point because we have complained about fish from China and said that we should block imports from China. Available statistics indicate that the local production of fish in Kenya is at 180,000 metric tons. That leaves a deficit of about 320,000 metric tons that is plugged by imports. We have been importing close to 20,000 tons of fish from China. Lake Victoria still accounts for the highest percentage of fish in Kenya. Overall production from inland, water, marine and aqua culture sources are at 73, 17 and 10 per cent respectively. The focus that we should be placing on the Blue Economy is on the exploitation of our exclusive economic zone. Many fishermen in the Indian Ocean are unable to go beyond 4 nautical miles, yet we have got access to 200 nautical miles. The industry is still in a hunter and gatherer kind of mode, where people wake up in the morning, go to hunt and gathering, sell their catch and hope that the next day, they are going to do the same thing. Even though aquaculture is gaining traction, there are still challenges. Those of us who have attempted to do fish ponds or aquaculture, we know how expensive feed is. Just the same way feed for dairy cattle and poultry is expensive, it is the same way that feed for fish is expensive. These are some of the incentives that we should be making to farmers to ensure that we advance the agenda of food security. There is no need to tax inputs like feed excessively. County governments should be setting up feed processing plants so that fish, poultry, and dairy farmers can get cheap inputs for their products. The European Union (EU) has been the main destination of fish exports from Kenya. You could say that the marketing of fish in Kenya has been more or less on auto"
}