Moses Kuria

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 91 to 100 of 166.

• 21 Jun 2023 in Senate: Mr. Speaker, Sir, our national production of rice, as I thank Sen. Dullo, is 180,000 metric tonnes. That is the much we produce. Our national consumption is one million metric tonnes. Therefore, we are barely producing 15 per cent of our national consumption on national demand. This is an issue of concern. That is exactly the main reason the Government has prioritized the issue of productivity. That is why, today, we have just clocked three million bags of fertilizers under our subsidy programme, so that we can bridge this gap between production and consumption. view
• 21 Jun 2023 in Senate: It is a dire issue that, on one hand, our people have got nothing to eat and jobless, yet we continue to export our dollars to import close to 800,000 metric tonnes of rice every year, which can be grown locally. We are also resolving this issue through focus on large-scale mechanized agriculture. You are going to see a lot of news coming from Galana Kulalu, where our first 10,000 acres of irrigated land under maize is on a trial basis and is doing very well. We are continuing to receive because of the effort that the Government and I ... view
• 21 Jun 2023 in Senate: We, therefore, have an injection of capital to do large-scale mechanized agriculture. We are getting many people coming. We hope that within the next one or two years, we are going to bend the curve in terms of reliance on these imports, so that we can also be self-sufficient. I expect that as we continue to harvest the benefits from Thiba Dam in Mwea Irrigation Scheme, productivity will also go up. So, better yields, more inputs like fertilizer, more water for irrigation and, in fact, putting more land under agriculture, are efforts that the Government is making to ensure that ... view
• 21 Jun 2023 in Senate: This is remarkably a major departure from the previous Government, which was subsidizing consumption. In this Government, we have said that we are going to subsidize production, so that we do it for a period of time, and after that, the country can be self-sufficient. view
• 21 Jun 2023 in Senate: I submit, Mr. Speaker, Sir. view
• 21 Jun 2023 in Senate: Mr. Speaker, Sir, I thank Sen. Veronica Maina for that question. There is no distinction or exception in the way we treat edible oil in terms of procurement framework from other commodities. I expected a question on whether we single-sourced rice and maize, which we are importing or releasing for the source of other products. There is no distinction. We did not single-source. We pre-qualify suppliers from time to time continuously under the framework agreed upon with the public procurement authority. We do that because we did not receive any funding from the Exchequer. Suppose we go out there and ... view
• 21 Jun 2023 in Senate: Mr. Speaker, Sir, the short answer is that we did not single source. All our pre-qualified suppliers are given an equal opportunity to present quotes and then we take the most competitive quotes because they must make profits. view
• 21 Jun 2023 in Senate: I apologize for my lengthy explanation. The reason is that it is emotive for me is because I want us to look at the Mwea farmer, who should be complaining equally to the edible oil person. However, the Mwea farmer is weak, with torn trousers and open shoes. So, they are not on the table and have no voice. So, I have no problem answering the question on edible oil. I, however, want somebody to ask a question on behalf of the rice farmer of Ahero and Mwea; not just edible oil of the few cartels. view
• 21 Jun 2023 in Senate: I submit, Mr. Speaker, Sir. view
• 21 Jun 2023 in Senate: Thank you Mr. Speaker, Sir, and thank you Senator of Nandi County for that question. That is the conversation that I can have every day; about the person with a torn shirt and trouser from Mosoriot. It is also close to my heart that we focus on that farmer because that is what this Government is all about. My short answer is that we did not, as KNTC, import any maize and we have not imported any. We gave approval for duty free from the Ministry of Agriculture to import 1.4 million bags of maize to bridge the need that ... view