HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 1046167,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1046167/?format=api",
"text_counter": 158,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Kang’ata",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 1826,
"legal_name": "Irungu Kang'ata",
"slug": "irungu-kangata"
},
"content": "Once the Government starts purchasing ndengu, you will see more farmers planting ndengu. This is an intervention on the supply side. On the demand side, you will find people starting to consume more ndengu in their homes. Currently, when people purchase beans to make their stew, they purchase Minji. However, with ndengu getting more recognition via this law, I suspect the prices of ndengu will go up, which is positive. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I strongly believe that the future of this country is interconnected with the prospects of the dry regions. Since the dry regions have virgin land and are waiting for irrigation, once it comes, you will find food security embedded in this country. Therefore, ndengu being a crop that can withstand harsh climatic conditions, it needs a lot of support. It is a crop in the dry belt and I support the philosophy underpinning this Bill. However, allow me to point out areas of improvement, which my colleague who has brought this Bill can consider. First, is on part three and four of the Bill on the regulatory provisions. The reason you find countries like America prospering is because they have light regulations. Every time you bring regulations to a country, you tend to stifle development of industries. I am trying to convince my brother that every time you hear a regulation, you must always look it from a negative point of view. It is something that is going to be enacted by the Government whose net effect notwithstanding the original intention to assist that sector, regulations tend to whittle down and hold back the economy. The less regulated a sector is, the better it is. For instance, you find in the Bill requirements for registration of growers, requirement for licensing of marketers, processors on large-scale and refusal to issue a license. These are dangerous provisions from where I sit. They will create a parallel black market. It will mean a poor person in Kitui cannot establish a small shamba of ndengu without going to pay for a license. The license will be expensive. I have no doubt that the Government will put some fee for obtaining that license. Two, it will be laborious to procure that license which will take years or bribe the officials. You might argue the importance of issuing the licenses to standardize the sector. However, based on my experience with Government regulations, they retard industries. For instance, if you want to establish a hotel here in Nairobi or anywhere in this Republic, how many licenses are you supposed to get from the Government? It is almost 100. You have to obtain licenses from the National Construction Authority (NCA), the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA), public health, the county government, the engineers and builders and the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority (ARLA). There is a good scholar from Latin America called Hernando de Soto Pola. He argued persuasively on how the Government in third world countries retard economic growth by coming up with taxes and laborious process. Ask any person who wants to put up a factory in this country on how many licenses he needs to obtain. They will tell you to obtain the license, in the case of NEMA, to protect the environment. The truth is that there will be no single NEMA officer who will come up to your premises. You will go to their offices and give them ‘something’, then they will give you the document. No single person will come to the factory to do anything. Every time I see a regulation or a law proposing a regulation, my blood runs cold. This is why I am a great opponent for any forms of regulation 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."
}