Gideon Sitelu Konchella

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 71 to 80 of 588.

• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this debate. First, I want to appreciate the Cabinet sub-committee that developed this policy. In this policy, they have rightly said that the agricultural sector provides livelihood for about 80 per cent of the Kenyan population. This is a fact that is known. It is a fact we must struggle with as we develop our policy, and as we grow food for our people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with the onset of global warming, leading to desertification that is almost covering our country, ... view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I earnestly urge the Minister to take this very seriously to be able to provide the right seeds and fertilisers on time, so that by the end of August there will be enough for people to plant again, and they get crops before the end of year. view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: On the issue of credit, I would like to thank the Ministry of Agriculture, especially for the extension service through the Kenya Sugar Board (KSB) to farmers in my constituency; they are now growing sugar-cane. Indeed, I have no problem because we have learnt to grow sugar-cane and the yield is very good. The soil is right. The climate and the temperature are good; when you look at the yield for example per hectare, while in most of the country you do not get more than 100 tonnes per hectare, we are getting over 200 tonnes per hectare. This is ... view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: I would urge the Ministry to train farmers given that they are going into new commercial farming like the growing of sugar-cane; they need to be educated in terms of how to plan the land use. They should be shown how to put so much land under sugar- cane, maize and cattle; they usually seem to depend on cattle throughout. The Government used to do it. view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: I also want to thank Equity Bank because it is trying to educate the farmers on how not to misuse their money because they get a lot of money out of what they get per hectare. So, Equity Bank is trying to educate the farmers on how to plough back the money and how to use it properly. The Government should play its active role to ensure that land use planning and growing of food commodities is done properly and then farmers are guided accordingly. view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Kiambu is turning into a concrete jungle, yet it has the best agricultural land in this country. The farmers there are selling their land to people to build houses. Why should the Government allow that? I am not saying they should not sell land, but this should be regulated, so that land in Kiambu and other places is used only for recreation purposes. Somebody can move to some other part of the country and put up his estate or high rise buildings, if he wants to do that; agricultural land that is most productive should ... view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: I also wish to mention that I do not know whether the policy here addresses the issue of value addition, because we have a lot of perishable goods in this country. When you go to Nyandarua, for example, there was a time when they had a lot of vegetables and other foods. When you go to the Mau, they have a lot of potatoes but what happens? Once they flood the market, they go to waste. The farmers cannot sell them because they cannot get enough money to grow the same food the following year. Why can the policy not ... view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: With those few remarks, I wish to support the policy and ask the Minister to, please, do what she says. Thank you. view
• 28 Jun 2012 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to seek a Ministerial Statement on a matter of national concern. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, indeed, it is now about three weeks since the death of Prof. George Saitoti, hon. Orwa Ojode and four police officers in a helicopter crash. The Minister for Transport set up an inquiry, under the Civil Aviation Act, to investigate the cause of the accident, but investigators have been frustrated by the Ministry, by not providing the required assistance and facilitation. The investigators representing the family of hon. Prof. Saitoti left the country last night due to frustrations. This ... view
• 28 Jun 2012 in National Assembly: On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. While the Minister may seem to be talking rightly, this was the beginning. But what has subsequently happened is that the Ministry has made sure that it locks them out when they ask for facilitation. This week, they asked for a 40-foot container to be purchased so that they can relocate all the material into the container, seal it and make sure that everybody has a key so that nobody gets to interfere with it for future investigations. However, they refused to buy the container. Indeed, the Permanent Secretary was not ... view