SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY HON. UHURU KENYATTA, C.G.H.

, PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE DEFENCE FORCES OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA DURING THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE SOIL TEST RESULTS AND FLAGGING-OFF OF SUBSIDIZED FERTILIZER AT EGERTON UNIVERSITY, NAKURU, 18TH FEBRUARY, 201 Fellow Kenyans, It gives me great pleasure to join you today. We meet to mark the release of our national soil test results, and to flag off the distribution of fertilizer subsidized by our government. Ladies and entlemen, Fifty years after our independen!e, not every Kenyan is sure of their ne"t meal. #s we speak, parts of the !ountry suffer severe food shortages of food and water. $y government stands with Kenyans in their time of need. %e!ently, I inaugurated a !onvoy !arrying food worth Kshs &'( million, destined for parts of )orth *astern, +oast and %ift ,alley regions. -ur $inistry of #gri!ulture, Livesto!k and Fisheries has been relo!ating food to these areas through the )ational +ereals and .rodu!e /oard 0)+./1. $y +abinet has approved Kshs. (22 million for livesto!k drugs, va!!ines, feeds, and other programs, the better to su!!or pastoralists stru!k by drought. 3hese measures, though important, are insuffi!ient. We !an no longer afford to deal with famine after it breaks out4 we must now relin5uish it to our past. 6ustained agri!ultural growth means higher living standards4 it means far 5ui!ker rapid e!onomi! growth4 it means that no Kenyan will go to bed hungry. Ladies and entlemen, We know how to do it. In our manifesto, we argued that it was best to revolutionize agri!ulture. It was time, we said, to move from subsisten!e to the agro7enterprise that would employ and empower Kenyans. 8et even now the produ!tivity of many our !rops remain below potential. In some !ases, it is even in de!line. #nd this de!line has persisted in spite of the su!!essive introdu!tion of new varieties, new fertilizers and new pesti!ides. 6!ientists are uneasy9 they fear that the fertility of our soils may be waning. $y overnment was alive to the !on!ern. 3hrough the $inistry of #gri!ulture, we undertook soil sampling and testing a!ross the !ountry. -ur aim was to dis!over how best to maintain the fertility of ea!h and every one of our e!ologi!al zones : we also believed every farmer should have advi!e tailored to his needs and lo!ation. Ladies and entlemen, 3he soil test results I release today are the first fruits of that long and testing period of resear!h. # sound s!ientifi! baseline for monitoring the fertility of our soils has been established. 3he fetters that bound our farmers will now be

undone. Ladies and entlemen, )ow that we have a !lear idea of the nature of our soils, we !an begin to implement our long7term soil7health improvement strategy. -f !ourse, the results will also be useful in the immediate future9 we are now in a mu!h better position to re!ommend 5uality fertilizers right a!ross the !ountry. #s always, my overnment !annot su!!eed without your help. 6o I urge farmers to use the results of the tests over whose laun!h I preside today. Ladies and entlemen, I turn now to my overnment;s fertilizer subsidy programme. We know that the program began in <22'. Its aim, an honorable one, was to !ushion farmers against seasonal !hanges in the pri!e of fertilizer. /y the end of the <2&<=<2&> finan!ial year, over ?22,222 $etri! 3onnes 0$31 of fertilizer, worth Kshs. &>.'2 /illion had been distributed. 3his year, and in keeping with .resident Kibaki;s initiative, my overnment has pur!hased &?>,222 $3 of fertilizer worth Kshs. @.< billion, to be distributed !ountrywide. We have begun to distribute the fertilizer well before the long rains, and in larger 5uantities than ever before. Farmers throughout the !ountry will have the fertilizer in time, and at pri!es they !an afford. I should also mention that my overnment has established the 6eed and Fertilizer Aevelopment Fund to support our fertilizer programme. We set aside an initial investment of Kshs. > billion, whi!h will gradually rise to Kshs. &B billion over the ne"t five years. In time, the fertilizer subsidy will grow to !over every one of our high value !rops : tea, !offee, pyrethrum and sugar!ane among them. It would be far better if every shilling of our fertilizer subsidy !reated jobs for our youth. 6o our long7term plan is to establish a fertilizer manufa!turing plant right in the !ountry. -ur feasibility study is !omplete, and plans are underway to implement its re!ommendations. Ladies and entlemen, 3he fertilizer subsidy and soil testing do not e"haust my government;s initiatives in agri!ulture. In !onformity with our national development plan, ,ision <2>2, my government is supporting the )ational #!!elerated #gri!ultural Inputs #!!ess .rogramme 0)##I#.1, the 6mallholder Corti!ulture Aevelopment .rogramme 06CA.1, and the re!ently laun!hed alana=Kulalu Food 6e!urity .roje!t, as well as the e"ploitation of our fisheries resour!es : you will remember that I was in $ombasa re!ently to laun!h a marine vessel in support of that end. In time, Ladies and entlemen, all these programmes will !ome to their maturity. In time, this nation will enjoy the ri!h harvest it deserves. I urge you, then, to support them in any way you !an.

Finally, Ladies and entlemen, 3o spur produ!tivity and !lose the !y!le of food shortages, I hereby dire!t the $inistry of #gri!ulture, Livesto!k and Fisheries to immediately revise the pri!es of subsidized fertilizer downward as follows9 A#. from <,?'2=7 to <,222=7 per bag ).% from <,>22=7 to <,222=7 per bag +#) from &,(22=7 to &,B22=7 per bag Drea from &,'22=7 to &,B22=7 per bag It is now my pleasure to de!lare the national soil test results offi!ially released, and to flag off the subsidized fertilizer. Kwa hayo ma!ha!he, #santeni sana na $ungu awabariki.