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{
"id": 1156206,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1156206/?format=api",
"text_counter": 113,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13131,
"legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
"slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
},
"content": "sugar. I started making my submissions, but cannot remember where I stopped. Therefore, I will just say what I felt was really key. I remember talking about the overview of our agricultural sector being challenging. Generally, it is a huge challenge and we have a big problem. We call our country an agricultural country because that is the activity we take part in. However, any economist will tell you that in as much as agriculture contributes 56 per cent to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), its contribution to national revenue is less than 5 per cent. That gap is what we call the value gap. There is a gap in value addition. The products that we produce are mainly subsistence. We are not able to go to the market and monetise this sector as it should be because this should be the engine of economic transformation. Much of this has happened because of poor policy decisions over the years. There is no individual to blame. It is just that our policy outlook has been terrible such that, today, our country is importing rice from Tanzania and eggs from Uganda. We are importing things that should actually be produced in our country. It is because we have not seen how to reform the sector, make it profitable and get young people involved in agriculture. Madam Temporary Speaker, so many young people believe that agriculture is for those who have not gone to school; that it is not cool to farm. Contrary to that, this is a huge economic frontier for our country. The evidence that our sector in agriculture is not doing well is really at the consumer’s level. The cost of goods and the price of food items is so high that it shows you there is a real problem. Many Kenyans are suffering and not enough leaders are talking about not just the suffering, but what must be done. This is especially when it comes to basic commodities, basic food, subsistence food or staple foods. Our country has distinguished itself for talking about certain things. If we have a surplus of potatoes in Kenya, but there is not enough maize for ugali, we will say we have famine. In a huge part of this country; no matter what you put on the table, if there is no ugali, there is no food. Those were just light refreshments before food came. Today, Kenyans are paying Kshs120 for a kilogramme of rice, which was Kshs70. The cooking oil that we call salad oil was Kshs250. It has now gone to Kshs400. Wheat flour was Kshs115, but it is now at Kshs200. Bread was Kshs45, but it is now at Kshs60. The same applies for milk. That tells you that there is something completely wrong, and there is a breakdown. Even the price of salt has gone up. Since I was born, it had never gone up from Kshs10. How you look at it practically is from the example, of many women and men in Nairobi City County, who are in this industry, that feeds the Jua Kali sector. I am talking about the chapati madondo industry that very few will talk about. Those hustlers, those common people, would just buy one packet of flour at Kshs115, oil at Kshs250 and charcoal for Kshs100. All of it plus labour would come to Kshs600 for a packet. One packet of flour produces 25 chapatis. You will have to sell it at least Kshs30 per chapati to make Kshs750, so as to have some profit. Madam Temporary Speaker, for the same process, that bag of rice is now Kshs200, oil is Kshs400, charcoal Kshs100 and labour Kshs100 comes to Kshs900. For that person to make a profit, they have to sell one chapati at more than Kshs50."
}