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{
    "id": 1088302,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1088302/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 191,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "coming to vote are not real farmers. They are hired goons are criminals brought there with fake registration numbers to vote in one of their own to continue fleecing the famer. This Bill seeks to change the management of our coffee industry. I encourage the Mover, Sen. Ndwiga, that there are a few things that he may wish to look at at the Committee Stage, so that we make it even better at that stage. Agriculture is a devolved function. So, I agree and laud the sharing of responsibilities between the National Government and county governments. As we do so, accountability of those manning this important industry must be emphasized. When the new Constitution came and we brought in the AFA Bill, that was the beginning of destruction of farming in Kenya. We took all crop legislations and lamped them under one composite Act of Parliament. The sugar and pyrethrum industries went. Rice and maize farming were compromised and coffee farming killed. Today, we are now on a reconstruction path. This reconstruction must be people-centred because the farmer is the most important person in any matrix about farming. We are not going to have the bad old days where people weree sitting in Kenya Planters Cooperative Union (KPCU) headquarters earning billions of shillings and the farmer toiling and moiling from morning to evening, looks like a beggar. We want to put authority back to the farmer and money in the pockets of farmers. As we do so, I want the Mover of the Bill to consider several things that I want to point out. One is in Clause 4. With devolution, I do not know why we want to keep the headquarters of this Coffee Board in Nairobi City where no coffee is grown. This is now the cartels in Nairobi City then micromanage the farming in the country. I do not mind the CBK being domiciled in any of the major coffee growing areas, whether Embu, Meru, Trans Nzoia, Bungoma or wherever. That way, people will feel that it is a devolved function. Even Kisii County because Kisii is a major coffee growing area. Madam Temporary Speaker, we need to decentralize things from Nairobi City and take them to the real producers of the crops. I do not mind my brother, Sen. Ndwiga, hosting this CBK even in Embu where he comes from. Keeping everything in Nairobi City where farmers who want services are sometimes brutalised by not very friendly people, lose their money and have to spend a lot of money in expensive hotels. I want him to consider that. In Clause 5(1)(d), I do not understand why the Committee wants investment of Board money to be referred to the CS for National Treasury for approval. I thought being a Board corporate, when they want to invest money, their line Ministry is the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. It is not a matter of taxation and something that requires the National Treasury. As it is, the National Treasury is so tied down battling how to deal with our runaway public debt, that dealing with coffee money will be one of their least interests. If you do not trust the Board to handle the finances and you need ministerial approval, then give it to the mother Ministry. I am sure the future CS of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries may not be as unreasonable as the one we are experiencing today. So, we will have things done properly. Clause 7 is on persons who will serve on the Board. I am always very uncomfortable about just saying a person is eligible because he holds a degree from a"
}