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{
    "id": 1213749,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1213749/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 120,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiminini, DAP-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Bisau Kakai",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " I thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I take this opportunity to thank the Committee for the timely nullification of these regulations as published under Legal Notice No.102 of 2022. These regulations had actually shattered the aspirations of coffee farmers, denied them a livelihood and reduced them to paupers. As much as we support the nullification, the question is what next? The cartels that rushed through these regulations still exist. We know that most of them are actually foreign cartels but they are well rooted within the country. You find that a broker, using a different name, is the one buying and milling coffee. As much as we support to have these regulations nullified, we should address the root cause of this problem. We need to have clear mechanisms for addressing the root cause, which is by fixing the cartels problem. Secondly, as regards these particular regulations, if I may give an example of my own backyard of Trans Nzoia, back then, we were contributing about 5 per cent of the total coffee produced in the country. However, today we are at one per cent. Farmers have cleared coffee bushes from their farms because they no longer add value to their livelihoods. Coffee is our main export earner. What we are saying is that we need to quickly fix this issue even as much as we have regulations. We need to do away with cartels. As they always say, it is the wearer of the shoe who knows where it pinches most. We would also like to involve the counties that grow coffee. As we do that, we should try to motivate them. I will give an example of the Cherry Advance Revolving Fund, which stood at about Kshs3 billion. The same group that had crafted these regulations always ignored counties like Trans Nzoia, Bungoma and Mount Elgon when they distributed these funds yet there is a lot of coffee being produced in those counties. We would like to fix the cartel issue and develop good regulations through a process that will involve the county governments of the counties that grow coffee because agriculture is devolved. That way, we will move forward. Hon Temporary Speaker, I support the nullification of Legal Notice No. 102 of 2022 as proposed by the Committee on Delegated Legislation. Thank you very much."
}