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{
    "id": 1030459,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1030459/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 153,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Eng.) Mahamud",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 373,
        "legal_name": "Mohammed Maalim Mahamud",
        "slug": "mohammed-mahamud"
    },
    "content": "(GDP). Agricultural products, tea included, are having serious problems. The plight of tea farmers that Sen. Khaniri talked about could be true for many other farmers. Tea is very indigenous to Kenya. Those of us who have served in various missions outside this country know that we used to promote tea a lot. However, you will be surprised to find out that no Kenyan tea finds itself on the shelves of the supermarkets in the world as Kenya tea because there is no value addition in Kenya. Our tea used to blend other teas. The quality of our tea is adulterated by people who bring all sorts of tea there. Lipton tea is from Kenya. Kenya is unable to do value addition because tea is not controlled by indigenous Kenyans. The multinationals in this country do their own things. The tea plantations in the western part of Kenya, especially Kericho, is very good but it has very little to do with the farmers. Frankly, the tea farmers are suffering because the challenges are growing by the day. If you look at the other sectors in the agricultural sector, they are equally suffering. I come from northern Kenya where 90 per cent of the people depend on the livestock for their livelihood. Nothing is in place on how to manage, improve and market it. We are letting down Kenya being an agricultural country. Kenya is a nation that cannot support its farmers. The farmers should have support so that they can feed the nation. Kenya is an agricultural country and agriculture contributes to about 30 per cent of the GDP. Madam Deputy Speaker, we must be serious. The Statement by Sen. Khaniri is in its right place. The Committee dealing with that must actually bring this matter to its conclusion. However, it is important to also note that all our sectors are in danger. As a country, we must wake up so that we can feed our nation and stop importing food from outside every time there is a small drought or crisis. During a crisis, we want to import maize and sugar. I know our sugar industry is down. I am aware that we get some quota from countries from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), so that we are given time to improve our factories, but our factories are dying. Madam Deputy Speaker, instead of improving our factories, we are fighting on how to import that quota and this is serious. The agricultural sector led by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries must wake up. In fact, the Ministry is behaving like a big rogue elephant kicking everybody around, but doing nothing. I support the Statement. I want to extend it to other sectors of the economy, livestock included. You can see the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) which was supposed to deal with livestock issues has now been transferred to the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF). I do not know what they want to do, but that sector is also neglected because farmers are left on their own. We need a Government that supports and takes its farmers seriously, so that this country can feed itself. With those remarks, I beg to support the Statement. I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker."
}