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{
    "id": 1012822,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1012822/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 103,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 440,
        "legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
        "slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, when we are talking about cushioning farmers, particularly at this time of COVID-19, first, the farmer must get something above the production cost of Kshs2,800. Those of us who come from maize growing regions have said that, for it to make sense, the Government must buy maize from them at Kshs3,500 per 90 kilogramme bag. The President appealing to cartels to buy it at Kshs2,500 is preposterous. Since Independence, the Government of Kenya has been supplying fertilizer and farm inputs to farmers at a reasonable subsidized price. When did we reach a stage where the President of the Republic of Kenya in the presence of governors would be appealing to cartels to sell fertilizer and farm inputs at a reasonable price? This is the problem we have in the country. Those of us who come from maize farming regions believe that this was a strategic attack on the farmers and producers who produce maize in that region. Our people in Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu, Nakuru, Elgeyo-Marakwet, Nandi and Bungoma, which are the leading maize producer regions voted for the Jubilee administration. What specific hatred does this administration have with farmers of those regions? What did they do that it has become the only Government that stops buying maize from farmers and controls the prices of farm inputs? I hope that the Senate will get to the bottom of this matter. We must take the Government to account. The President and most of the Government officials, including ordinary Kenyans, told us the failure in the farming sector was because Hon. Kiunjuri was the Cabinet Secretary. We were given a new Cabinet Secretary who the last time he told us anything meaningful was about locusts. Where is the situation of tea, coffee and milk farmers now? I agree with Sen. (Eng.) Maina that the issue is not on maize farmers versus coffee farmers or tea farmers against milk farmers. It is about the agriculture sector that has been neglected. We need an honest conversation on how to restore it to ensure that our young people can get employed and that we have more factories. We were told that, in the second term of President Uhuru Kenyatta, we will have a country that will be ahead in matters manufacturing. We believed that we will turn our farm produce and add value. However, this is a country that we do not produce anything by ourselves, not even condoms. As a nation, we must rethink about our priorities; the agriculture sector and everything else so that we become capable of speaking and saying that, ‘we defend the interests of the people of Kenya.’ With those few remarks, I support this Statement."
}