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{
    "id": 981772,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/981772/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 173,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need to be serious because what we have been seeing is comedy. I saw a policeman with a Kalashnikov on the shoulder running through the bush chasing locusts and blowing a whistle. I do not know who told him that locusts will hear the sound of a whistle and fly away. We have had so many things. What is worrying now is the spread of these insects. They have now landed in Muhoroni and are likely to devastate the entire western belt food basket of the country. If you have read the history of locusts, as they travel at that speed, they mate and reproduce ferociously, so that every other week the numbers multiply and quadruple sometimes as they move. Therefore, when you hear a Cabinet Secretary saying that they will age and die, you wonder what knowledge he possesses. I know that hon. Munya is not a fool; he is a very brilliant young man and has been known to do a very thorough job. Therefore, when he brings comedy into such serious business, I agree with the Senate Majority Leader that we must call him to the Committee of the Whole, so that this Statement can be interrogated thoroughly. He must come with the statistics on the implications of this invasion and how many acres of food have been devastated in northern Kenya, eastern Kenya and central Kenya. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the President of this country should declare this locust invasion a national disaster, so that extraordinary measures are taken to fight and exterminate these insects. This is because they will not be wished away. If for heaven’s sake they land in our game parks like the Mara, tourism will die overnight. This is because they eat everything green in their way. By the time the grass recovers, there will be no animals in the Mara; they will have gone perhaps to Tanzania or even further. Therefore, I laud Sen. Wambua for bringing this Statement and all the colleagues that have contributed and demand that the Cabinet Secretary, through your direction, comes before this House as early as it is practically possible; even if it means Thursday this week, to be interrogated properly and thoroughly by this House. This is so that he can tell us if he has a budget line for fighting this calamity and measures that have been put in place. We now have two to three months since the insects invaded Kenya, and we hear that they are moving on. Thank you."
}