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{
    "id": 1255248,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1255248/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 475,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wambua",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13199,
        "legal_name": "Enoch Kiio Wambua",
        "slug": "enoch-kiio-wambua"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, the Clerk-at-the-Table is reminding me that I have one hour, but when I look at the clock, I have a few minutes. So, I will do my bit now then we will do the rest in the next sitting. Madam Temporary Speaker, I beg to move that the Mung Beans Bill, 2022, be now read a Second Time. Before I go to the content of the Bill, I want to draw the attention of the Senate to Part II of the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution of Kenya, which lists the functions and powers of county governments. It goes ahead to list agriculture as the first function of county governments. I have argued on this Floor and in other fora that you can never talk about counties or county governments and fail to talk about agriculture because the two are like siamese twins. Therefore, I beg to move that the Senate considers the Mung Beans Bill. I realized there was a bit of confusion among Members. When you talk about mung beans, it is actually what we refer to as ndengu. At the Coast, they call it pojo and in common usage, it is green grams. I beg to bring to the attention of this Senate a few background issues on mung beans. Research across the world has indicated that mung beans generate high financial returns. Perhaps, that is where my problem begins. These are beans that have for centuries or years on end enriched many people in this country and outside the country, but they continue to impoverish the farmers or people who grow the crop. People who benefit from ndengu or green grams or mung beans do not grow the beans. They wait for the farmers to sweat on the farms, descend on the farms with trucks, buy the crop at throwaway prices, and sell the same beans at exaggerated prices in local and in international markets. The reason I thought about bringing this Bill to the Senate and Parliament is a story that I will share in the remaining time before I continue moving the Bill in the next sitting. In June 2019, I travelled to a place called Tseikuru, which is in Mwingi North of Kitui County. While at the market, I realized that there were so many trucks because it was a market day. When I inquired from the residents about what was happening, I was informed that the trucks are brought by traders from outside the county who go to that market on Thursdays to buy ndengu . I made further inquiries and sent one of my assistants to buy me a kilogramme of green grams and they bought it at Kshs30. When we came back to Nairobi, the following day I went to a leading supermarket in the City and randomly picked a package of one kilogramme of green grams. When I went to the till, I paid Kshs240 for the one kilogramme of green grams. Since I am not a good cook, but I assure you my wife is, I took the two packages home; the one kilogramme that I bought at Tseikuru at Kshs30 and the other kilogramme that I bought from a supermarket at Kshs240. I asked her to tell me the difference between the two packages. She took a keen interest and looked at the beans. According to her, the only difference between the two packages was that one was packaged in a simple cheap nylon paper and the other one was packaged in a branded expensive package. That is how the journey of the Mung Beans Bill started."
}