Pasta not Ugali...? Rotich’s ‘weird’ Budget proposals

The 2015/2016 Budget is an ambitious statement that capped State’s expenditure at a staggering Sh2.2 trillion. Its proposals were also staggering. While Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich proposed massive irrigation projects, the building of the Sh300 billion standard gauge railway and putting up all government payments in the digital platform, the Budget also contained mundane proposals.

One of these proposals is encouraging the importation of Semolina - “the raw material for making pasta.” Jubilee government would like to encourage the importation of this substance under the East Africa Community duty remission scheme at a rate of zero per cent instead of the 25 per cent for gazetted manufacturers of pasta.

Pasta? (I asked a friend if he knew what pasta was and he instead asked me if I meant ‘pastor’). Why not some subsidy on maize or rice or wheat? Indeed, while maize was mentioned once by the CS, pasta appeared three times! That is sacrilegious!

Maize is the grain that is used to make Kenya’s staple food - ugali. Pasta “is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine.” Now, how does an Italian staple food get more mentions than a Kenyan staple food in a Kenyan budget? In fact, in the last four budgets, the word “ugali” has never found an entry.

Staple food

True, pasta which includes macaroni and spaghetti is a favorite of a few Kenyans-but, really, it is not something for any Kenyan to die of, or for. In fact, the words “hunger,” “drought,” “famine,” in Kenya easily brings to mind the words “maize” and “ugali.” The CS would have been forgiven if he would have been as emphatic on “rice” and “wheat.”

Although the CS talked of compensating farmers under the Mwea’ irrigation scheme, he never mentioned the word rice for which Mwea is famed. Arguably, rice is easily Kenya’s substitute staple food. Yet in all of the three Budget statements that Rotich has read on the floor of Parliament, the term “rice” has never featured. Yet rice, unlike Semolina is grown locally in areas such Mwea and Muhoroni.

Almost every Kenyan’s breakfast cannot be complete without some bread, cake, croissants, cookies, or breakfast cereals. These are made from wheat flour which is extracted from wheat grain, yet Rotich never mentioned wheat in his whole Budget speech. Again, wheat, unlike Semolina, is grown locally.

The other interesting thing in Rotich’s Budget was the use of the term “food security” which featured once in the 2015/2016 budget, three times in the 2013/2014 budget and never featured in the last budget.

True, under the umbrella of “food security” the CS allocated Sh3.1 billion for fisheries development, Sh600 million for revival of Kenya Meat Commission, Sh2.7 billion for grain reserves and Sh3 billion for inputs subsidy. The speech is also laden with talk of massive irrigation projects. But by reducing the number of times the word “food security” appeared is Rotich trying to tell us something?

By reducing the number of times he mentions the term “food security” and bringing in “Semolina” and “Pasta”, is he trying to say that we are inching closer to food security? By giving Sh2.78 billion to the grain reserve without putting equal emphasis on the “grains” such as maize and wheat that should be put in those reserves, his efforts seem a bit frayed.

Fish has become such a delicacy among Kenyans, so much that Nyeri County, an area whose people not more than ten years ago thought of fish as snake, is now the country’s second producer of fish after Kisumu County, though it has to be emphasised that Kisumu still retains the trophy of producing the ‘tastiest fish’.

So, was it right for the CS to provide for the importation of nylon yarn and synthetic twine used in the manufacture of fishing nets under the duty remission scheme at a rate of 0 per cent instead of 10 per cent?

Not necessarily. While the CS rightly noted that the demand for fishing nets has been on the rise, he forgot to add that there has also been an equivalent rise in over-fishing.

A rise in over-fishing without fishing nets! The challenge today is not just putting any fishing nets in the hands of a fisherman, but getting him the right fishing net so that the small fish could be spared.

The world has realised that fishing ought to be done sustainably. It is hoped that this would be catered for by the Sh3.1 billion set aside for fisheries development.

Moreover, while the CS was upbeat about fishing, he never said anything about the water hyacinth that has made fishing on Lake Victoria a nightmare.