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{
    "id": 1105891,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1105891/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 135,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Kang’ata",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "start earning Kshs300,000. Imagine immediately he set foot in the USA, a Kenyan who was earning Kshs10,000 per month in Kenya, will earn almost Kshs300,000 per month. You will find that the Kenyan is just offering caregiving services. In fact, he is living at somebody’s premises without paying rent or any other bill. It is just by the fact that, that person has immigrated to the USA and is doing caregiving jobs. To those who are negotiating a free trade agreement between Kenya and the USA, please, embed in those negotiations the requirement that America is going to open up is services to Kenyans. This is so that we have more expatriates and people of the diaspora, who are going to benefit from this Bill that I am currently pushing. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there are other things that the people of the diaspora can help Kenyans. That is why I am pushing for the passage of this Bill. One is the area of boosting agricultural exports. Murang’a County is currently the leading county in avocado production and export. We are currently the largest producer of a variety called Hass avocadoes. Hass avocadoes are usually exported to Netherlands and UK. I strongly believe that if we have a robust and more forward looking and engaged diaspora, they can push our products like avocadoes to several European countries and we boost Kenyan trade with those countries. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, tea remains the second most important foreign exchange earner for this Republic. However, we all saw the other time that the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) has announced one of the lowest bonuses to the people who do tea farming. One of the reasons is that we export tea to a very limited set of countries. On that score, I urge Kenyan authorities to treat the Pakistani with a lot of respect. They are our main and most important importer of Kenyan tea. If for any good reason we can diversify the countries that consume Kenyan tea, I have no doubt that we can boost farmers’ prices. Murang’a County happens to be the largest small-scale tea exporting county. If you were to have the Kenyan diaspora in the UK, USA and Dubai importing Kenya tea and introducing it to those markets, it would definitely assist Murang’a and Kenya as a country. This Bill will create the synergies that are needed to ensure our diaspora continues to be engaged economically with the Kenyan people. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Kenya also exports coffee. When we were very young, coffee used to be the most important crop. However, for the last several years, there has been a decline in the coffee that is produced by our Kenyan farmers. The people of the diaspora play a major role in assisting to open up those Western economies. This Bill is, therefore, important because it will create those synergies that are needed to ensure that we boost the producer prices. I am a great believer in what we call minimum guaranteed returns. It is the idea that the Government should directly remit money to the farmers to support them when it comes to issues of input. For those of us who come from milk producing counties like Murang’a, a milk farmer needs inputs like manure that will be used for the Napier grass and salt. All those inputs cost a lot of money. If we establish a minimum guaranteed return, boost milk production and then open up more external markets for our milk, we are definitely going to help that poor"
}