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{
    "id": 1042288,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1042288/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 68,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. At the outset, I want to congratulate Sen. Cheruiyot for this landmark legislation that he has brought to this House. It will be forever remembered. I also want to thank the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries led by Sen. Ndwiga who has given us a brief exposition of the history of this struggle that has taken place both in this House and outside this House. Before I go into the details of this Bill, many people have lobbied because Sen. Cheruiyot Tweeted earlier for people to lobby their Senators. I received numerous calls and SMS. I want to thank James who says he is a voter in Nairobi from Nyeri, Alice Kihara from Embakasi, Dr. Kones who vied in Bomet County and was my Mathematics teacher in the University of Nairobi and Muthoni Waithanji. I called back one of them to find out if they know what they are talking about. I asked them what it is in this Bill that they actually like and they were clear because somebody can say just pass it because it will help us yet they are not farmers. My county does not grow tea, but we are the largest consumers of tea locally. In Nairobi, we are the largest consumers of everything. Looking at this Bill, it speaks to a lot that needs to be done. Based on the economics of our country, agriculture which produces almost 33 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the World Bank report of the Kenya economic update, we are talking about 31.4 per cent of reduction of rural poverty and 56 per cent of the total labor force. However, the disconnect, which I know many people do not realize is that despite those numbers, the contribution to revenue by agriculture is still below 10 per cent. Why is it that way? It is because we have not properly addressed the issues of value addition. People are busy, but they are not actually creating revenue and wealth in this country and other people are creating the wealth. Mr. Speaker, Sir, unless we decisively deal with issues of value addition, Kenyans will be busy in the farms clogging up what we call non-meaningful GDP, but not increasing revenue in this country. That is what we need to address. If you look at the level of poverty by people who engage in agriculture, it is extremely high. The normal tea farmer cannot be compared to the person who is dealing with those auctions or the people in the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) and"
}