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{
    "id": 1250999,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1250999/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 319,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cherarkey",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13217,
        "legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
        "slug": "cherarkey-k-samson"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we need to co-mingle and come together so that we are able to do research and transfer of technology. Where I come from, there is what we call ‘ Sixchoge’ where you get the best maize and hang it in your store and thereafter plant it. We want Kenya Seed to give us the best variety. We have to appreciate that climate change is real. The country just moved back from one of the worst droughts that we have ever seen in history. How do we get better seeds and hybrid seeds in terms of maize that can adopt to the changing ravaging effects of climate change when we are planting? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we are now planting purple tea including in Bomet where you come from, Kericho, South Rift and also Mount Kenya where they plant tea. Is it the best in the market? Is it of good quality? There are people like Sen. Okiya Omtatah who are planting cotton. We need to get the best seed and this research and technology must be found and facilitated. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when I speak about the issue of technology, we have mixed feelings. Under the International Labour Organization Charter (ILOC), the issue of tea plucking machines is the issue in the South and North Rift. I know your county has been diversely affected and also in Kericho, we saw a bit of discomfort. In as much as we welcome the use of technology in agriculture, that should not come to disenfranchise our young people from accessing jobs. I would have expected that we have at least 30 per cent of job opportunities or 30 per cent should go to the machines and 70 per cent go to labour. When you go to South Rift, Nandi Hills and part of Tinderet where multinational companies are, most of my young and even old people are idle because tea plucking has taken over. In fact, tea-plucking machines are worse because they cut everything including chameleons. The quality of the tea during processing is affected. That is why when some people drink tea, sometimes they end up getting intoxicated unlike when you are plucking tea by hands. I want to appeal to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives and the Ministry of Labour to relook at the issue of tea plucking machines in our tea estates. In fact, the introduction of tea plucking machines has affected the intermarriages especially where I come from. We used to have people from Vihiga, Kisumu and Busia coming to work in our tea estates. They used to meet with people from Nandi and you can imagine the hybrid of people coming from Vihiga and the people from Nandi which is the best hybrid that we can have as a country. So, it has a social net effect. Apart from the issue of access to labour as per Article 41 of the Constitution, it also has a net effect in terms of ensuring intermarriages. The issue of tea plucking machines especially in the North and South Rift, Mount Elgon in Bungoma County and part of Bungoma County, must be relooked at as they also have tea. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I know the Ministry of Interior National Administration is conducting investigations, which is okay. However, we should not muzzle leaders from speaking about the issue of tea plucking machines."
}