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{
    "id": 1030453,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1030453/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 147,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 407,
        "legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
        "slug": "ledama-olekina"
    },
    "content": "When we talk about Government policies, they should trickle down to the people on the ground so that they can understand their impact. When we have serious challenges in this country, I worry that 10 per cent of Kenyans are employed in one sector. Maybe they could be more. I hope that the Committee will take this matter seriously and Sen. Khaniri should take them to task. That is because we are talking about tea today, tomorrow we will be talking about sugarcane. I hope that one day we will be talking about livestock because that is what pastoralists depend on. I am happy that Sen. Kang’ata is looking at me as I talk. It is because when we talk about the areas that are missing in the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) proposal, it is that. If you look at the Shared Prosperity, it stops on agriculture. We want livestock to be included because that is what Kenyans depend on. Therefore, this Committee has to sit down and invite governors then carry out a proper audit in each county. That will help us know how much tea Kericho County produces. How much of the tea that you produce is sold locally and how much is sold in auctions so that we can streamline the sector. The genius in that sector is amazing. In fact, today I can disclose that there is some company in Kericho that does not only package the traditional tea, but it also packages a different kind of tea that helps us boost our immunity, courtesy of the governor of Kericho. We have the ability. The problem is that it is not that we do not have laws. If you read the Constitution and the laws that are out there, they have laid out everything on paper. However, is it practically achievable? We should go back to the Constitution. The framers of the Constitution thought it wise to devolve agriculture because they knew that is what everybody in this country depends on. What we need to do is to push for implementation of these laws and implementation of the Constitution because it is not that we do not have enough laws, it is just that we do not care an only lament. I listened to Sen. Wetangula talk about the deficit that farmers have, caused by brokers. They are people who go out there and instead of farmers benefitting, the brokers are the ones who benefit. Therefore, by the time the farmers take their sugarcane to the factory, they do not have any credit left for them to benefit. We need to sit down and say that the pieces of legislation that we pass in this House are defined to eliminate the brokers who have destroyed the tea sector. They are designed to eliminate the brokers who do nothing. They just sit in Nairobi or other parts of this country, then when the people who voted for Sen. Khaniri are crying and pushing him to come to this House to submit a proposal are harvesting their tea, the brokers go there and, guess what, our hard-working people end up suffering. Madam Deputy Speaker, I hope that the Committee that you will task to look into the very important Statement that Sen. Khaniri has come up with, they will be guided by what we are losing and what we can actually gain so that we improve the management of the tea sector in this country. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}