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{
    "id": 1042264,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1042264/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 44,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Ndwiga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 278,
        "legal_name": "Peter Njeru Ndwiga",
        "slug": "peter-ndwiga"
    },
    "content": "and so forth. The pilot of this project is none other than Sen. Cheruiyot, who is with us in this House today. Although I know Sen. Cheruiyot will thank the Members of the Ad Hoc Committee, I wish to also thank them starting with Sen. Kang’ata, Sen. Ongeri and Sen. Murkomen and himself. They did a sterling job and that is the process which has got us to where we are today. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the reforms in the tea sector could not have come at a better time. It is at this time when tea farmers in this country are crying loudly for these reforms. When we formed the Agency, and I did not say this earlier, our intention was that the management of the tea factories will be a democratic process. It started as such initially, but somewhere along the way, the process was changed such that today there are many farmers who do not know who the directors in the tea factories are or how they were elected. That process must be changed. We want all small-scale tea farmers to feel the ownership of their tea factories. Turning to the way we sell our tea, since time immemorial, our tea has been sold through the auction in Mombasa. The auction is perhaps the best place for price realization. That is why you realize prices because of competition from different people who would want to buy your tea. However, that is not the only way. Speaking towards the end of 2020, I think that it is time that we, Kenyans and Africans, relooked at the way we do our business. Who said that our business is to be producers of raw materials for everybody else? One of the amendments that caught my eye and which perhaps I would say is one of the most progressive is that the new Bill will require that within eight years, all tea managers will start a process of value addition to a minimum of 40 per cent of the tea that they take to the auction. That is progressive. I would have said perhaps up to 60 per cent. Who said that the tea farmer today in this country, while they are getting peanuts, there is no time they will sit in a restaurant in London and they are told that today because there is a tea glut; there is too much tea in the world that the price of tea has reduced? That is not so. While the tea farmers in the Republic and all over Africa are saddled with poverty, the consumers, the middlemen and those other business people are swimming in huge profits. I am happy that we are going to move in that direction of value addition. This is a something I have personally been championing for many days. It was the vision of COTEPA when we formed the Agency, that the Agency will spearhead the process of meaningful value addition of our tea, so that we do not just become producers of raw material and shifting them to other business people and brokers to make money. At this juncture, I wish to request the Members of this House to support these amendments. It is true that for last two days, so many Members have called me and talked to me about their concerns about some of the amendments. I have also received many petitions from several stakeholders, including the Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA), the KTDA itself and another association called the Small Scale Tea Growers (SSTC). I have received not less than five petitions. However, we have consulted with the Ministry and it was agreed that as soon as the Senate passes this Bill, the Ministry will hasten to form the Board."
}