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"content": "[The Temporary Deputy Speaker (Dr. Laboso) took the Chair]"
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"content": "We also want to sustain the production of high quality tea which, by the way, is used in the whole world for blending because Kenyan tea is the best quality in the whole world. Through this Motion, we seek to maintain and further Kenyan’s pridal place as the producer of large quantities of tea. We further, in this Motion, seek to expand our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and, indeed, spur the entire economy. We further seek, through this Motion to contribute to the strengthening of the battered Kenyan currency. If we increase the amount of tea we are selling in the international market, it attracts foreign exchange and in the process, it strengthens the Kenya Shilling. This is how crucial this Motion is. Further, through this Motion, we intend to increase jobs in the tea industry. Today, the tea industry employs 3 million young people. If this Motion sails through, I have done arithmetic on the computer and it is clear in my mind that we will create a further 7 million jobs and you can imagine what we will do to our youth who are leaving universities and other institutions of learning if there is an extra 7 million jobs. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, tea farming is not done in Mombasa and in Nairobi City neither is it done in Kisumu City. It is done in the very rural areas, where the people we represent, as Members of Parliament, live. So, if we pass this Motion, we will reduce rural poverty and reduce rural-urban migration. Finally, through this Motion, we want to give an opportunity to the concept of county governments. Counties with tea factories will have an opportunity to have a stable economic base through which they can become more autonomous and contribute to the larger national economy. That I am asking the Government to take over these loans is nothing new. It is the trend that is invoked worldwide. Recently, I came from the US and I was privileged to be with Madam Speaker on that trip. You will remember when we were there, the big news was how the Obama Government was bailing out corporations. The Obama Government has bailed out Chrysler, the motor car producer. The Obama Government, when we were there, you and I, you heard, had given US$500 million, equivalent to Kshs50 billion to Solyndra. So, to ask our Kenya Government to take over these particular loans is doing something that is modernistic and futuristic and that is where we want the leadership of Kenya to take our people. I would like, at this point, so that Members realise the crucial role that this sector plays in our economy, to make a few highlights on what our tea farmers are doing. Number one, tea farmers were the number one foreign exchange earner for this country. We earned Kshs97 billion from tea farming. In fact, we overtook tourism. Now, compare the amount of investment that the Government puts in tourism with the little we are asking of them; taking over these loans! It makes more sense to leave the investment we have made in tourism where it is and the savings we make, we pay off these small loans so that our farmers can take it as an incentive. The gross revenue that we got from this farming was Kshs54.6 billion up from Kshs51.7 billion that was earned in the previous year. Our farmers earned Kshs30.5 billion in the year 2010/2011 compared to Kshs28 billion which they earned in the previous year. The monthly payments that enable our farmers to put food on their tables, buy uniform for primary school children, buy text books and small things like pencils for our children, farmers were paid a whooping Kshs10 billion. Indeed, we must do everything possible to retain tea as the number one foreign exchange earner having overtaken tourism. I cannot conclude this Motion without sharing with Members those things that we can do so as to expand the performance of tea because I have talked of an ambitious 7 million new jobs. If we want to achieve the 7 million new jobs, we cannot get it simply by taking over the loans, as a Government. We could do more and there is plenty of room, for example, management of the monetary policy at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). The CBK should develop a better monetary policy which is favourable for foreign exchange rates. This is a huge challenge if what has been going into the volatile forex market is anything to go by."
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"speaker_name": "Dr. Khalwale",
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"content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is room for us to do more research at our universities and agricultural research institutes to ensure that the quality of tea which is planted in Kenya is improved. Thirdly, we can upgrade and modernize the production process in all our factories, so that production is cost-efficient. How do you make production cost- efficient? There are huge avenues, namely, making fertilizer cheap. Short term basis of making fertilizers cheap is to subsidize, the way we do for cereals. However, we could go further because there is plenty of room. We could build a local fertilizer producing factory. This is not difficult. In places such as Nyanza and Western provinces, where we produce a lot of sugar, there is a lot of manure that comes from the sugar factories. These could be used for purposes of creating a fertilizer factory that can be improved through other ingredients by experts to ensure that we are self-reliant in producing our own fertilizer. What a shame? A small little economy like Zambia has its own fertilizer producing factory. Why should we import fertilizer?"
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Khalwale",
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"content": "We can make labour a bit cheaper for the farmers. The way to make labour cheaper for farmers is to ensure that workers are paid in line with the productivity. So, if farmers are not overwhelmed with these loans, then they will pay better to the workers. Everybody will be happy. For the large scale farmers like hon. Kosgey and I, we can use plucking machines."
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"content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the other area where we can become cost- efficient is on the issue of transport. A lot of tea is wasted because the roads are poorly maintained. It is important that the Government goes out of its way to ensure that all roads in tea producing areas are tarmacked, tea is collected on time and spillage is reduced."
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"content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, our farmers all the way from region one in Embu, Kiranyaga, Kiambu in Central Province, Kisii in Nyanza Province, Western Province and Rift Valley, are choked by cost. They are dying. In fact, for an MP who comes from a tea producing area, he gets embarrassed to talk about the comparative payments that are there in the country. There is a factory called Mogogosiek and another factory called Kapkorios. Kapkorios earned a whooping Kshs1.5 billion last year while Mogogosiek earned a whooping, Kshs1.2 billion. But what happened? All those billions were eaten up by those loans that are killing these farmers. Farmers in Mogogosiek and Kapkorios were paid a mere Kshs33.50 and Kshs34.40 per kilogramme as bonus respectively. Compare this to what happened in Makomboki Factory in Murang’a County. They were paid Kshs45.15 per kilogramme as bonus. They were paid so much money that the Government had to send there special police to keep off twilight girls because they were going to confuse farmers who were having so much money."
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"content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, if I was in Government, I would not have allowed that, because even farmers also have a right to enjoy. What is important is that those girls who are being harassed, not all of them are prostitutes. Those girls are professionals. We have to manage this industry because that is the world. We cannot discriminate against certain Kenyans. We have got to be very honest. These are our own children. We failed to give them jobs, and then we start harassing them. It is very unfortunate!"
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"type": "speech",
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"content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to go to the sad case of my own home. My own factory, where I deliver my own tea, in Mudete Tea Factory and Kapsara Tea Factory; the only tea factories in the Luhya land, we were paid Kshs25 per kilogramme and Kshs29 per kilogramme, respectively. Why is this the case? It is because of the high cost of constructing those ultra modern factories in those areas. It is important that we write off these loans, so that our people are set free. That is what Dr. Martin Luther King used to call economic emancipation. There is no point of enjoying political emancipation when our people are not enjoying economic emancipation."
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Khalwale",
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"content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, having said that, I want to appeal to the Government and the Government is ably represented here today, by the hon. Mbiuki. Hon. Mbiuki, you are a young man with a very bright future. I am looking forward to this young man who is paying mothers Kshs5,000 to give birth, something which by the way I support. However, be aware if we do not pass this Motion, then those children that you are supporting to come forth into this world will be nothing but just beggars. They will be standing outside shopping centres begging. That is not the way to take the Government. I beg you ask your Government to support this. For this reason, I beg to move and ask Mr. Gitari to second."
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Laboso",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Deputy Speaker",
"speaker": {
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"legal_name": "Joyce Cherono Laboso",
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"content": " Hon. Khalwale, your time is up! Who is seconding."
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