Musalia Mudavadi

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 71 to 80 of 973.

• 26 Apr 2023 in National Assembly: step is to focus on enhancing food security. The Government aims to achieve food self- sufficiency and reduce imports through increased production and productivity of all staple food crops including stepping up production of oil seed crops such as sunflower and sesame. The March-April-May 2023 rainy season is predicted to be normal. We thank God for that. We intend to maximise our production potential for the rain-dependent-grain producing areas. The first significant harvest of grain is expected to enter the market in August 2023. view
• 26 Apr 2023 in National Assembly: We also have some short-term measures to address the food security situation. The Government has taken the long-term sustainable approach of resolving the cost-of-living predicament by subsidising production instead of consumption. However, there are a number of immediate interventions that are aimed at short-term solutions to the high cost of living and at the same time build momentum for the long-term approach. Key to this is the fertiliser subsidy programme. During the 2022/2023 short rains season, the Government availed 3.l million bags of fertiliser worth Ksh3.5 billion to improve farmers’ uptake and agricultural yields. In the current long rains season, ... view
• 26 Apr 2023 in National Assembly: To date, 2.246 million e-vouchers have been issued to registered farmers. As at 22nd April 2023, 28 counties were participating in the maize and coffee value chains. The total digitally registered farmers in those counties were 2.332 million. In those counties 1,000,960 50 Kg bags of fertiliser were bought by 271,684 farmers. Subsidised fertiliser for tea and coffee farmers has also been organised under the same programme. Again, I will table data on how this fertiliser has been distributed across the counties. view
• 26 Apr 2023 in National Assembly: The other intervention from the Government is the provision of duty waivers on food imports. To bridge the food stocks deficit and stabilise the high food commodity prices, the Government has granted duty waiver for importation of 1.4 million metric tonnes of white maize, 600,000 metric tonnes of rice, 500,000 metric tonnes of yellow maize— largely to be used for production of animal feed— 200,000 metric tonnes of soya beans, 300,000 metric tonnes of soya bean meal, 1,600 tonnes of assorted protein concentrate and 40,000 metric tonnes of feed additives effective from 1st February to 6th August 2023. You will ... view
• 26 Apr 2023 in National Assembly: We also have quite a number of other Government programmes in collaboration with the county governments. These are programmes that support crop and livestock insurance, the National Value Chain Support Programme (NVSP), Small-Scale Irrigation and Value Addition Programme (SIVAP), Kenya Cereals Enhancement Programme (KCEP) and Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Programme (KCSAP), just to name but a few that are designed to help farmers. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor. view
• 26 Apr 2023 in National Assembly: Hon. Speaker, let me now address the aspect of reducing the cost of fuel. The Government has done the following: First, the Government has lifted the moratorium on power purchase agreements as a way of enhancing the country’s energy security by opening up the energy sector to continued investments and leveraging on the market forces of demand and supply. However, the price benefits will not be immediate due to other exogenous factors. view
• 26 Apr 2023 in National Assembly: Secondly, prior to April 2023, the Government imported all its petroleum product requirements through the open tendering system. The monthly requirement— this is very useful for the Members— is approximately 740,000 metric tonnes of fuel. This translates to about USD70 million per month. All these petroleum products imports were paid for in United States of America (USA) Dollars which put a strain on the Government’s FOREX reserves and caused a huge deficiency in availability of USD causing depreciation of the Kenya Shilling. The USD requirements by oil marketing companies account for about 30 per cent of Kenya’s total USD requirements. ... view
• 26 Apr 2023 in National Assembly: Under the foregoing terms, the G2G arrangement is under implementation and the first cargoes— MT Front Capella delivering 80,000 metric tonnes of Jet A-1 fuel and MT Norddolphin delivering 85,000 metric tonnes of petrol—were received at the Port of Mombasa on Thursday, 13th April 2023. Other cargoes have been scheduled and are expected in the country. Having received the first consignment, the positive effects of this arrangement should start being felt in the near term. This intervention is also expected to reduce pressure on our foreign exchange and lower the cost of petroleum. view
• 26 Apr 2023 in National Assembly: Let me also focus on reducing the cost of cooking gas. We have moved swiftly to end the monopoly in the sourcing and supply of cooking gas which inevitably results in price inflation. The Government has opened up this sector by reviewing the policy to allow for competition by setting stage for additional players to be licensed to set up Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) facilities. This will cut the cost of handling and evacuating gas from the ships to the mainland. Hence, it will allow the dealers to transfer the cost reliefs to the consumer. view
• 26 Apr 2023 in National Assembly: Let me touch on how we are addressing the depreciation of the Kenya Shilling against other currencies. The Government is implementing sound exchange rate policies to stabilise the local currency and manage the foreign exchange reserves in an effort to mitigate the impact of currency fluctuations. As I noted earlier in my statement, in response to the question, the official foreign exchange reserves have declined from USD7.9 million which is equivalent to 4.4 months of import cover as at December 2022 to USD7.1 million which is equivalent to four months of import cover as at February 2023. The usable foreign ... view