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{
    "id": 1349645,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1349645/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 699,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, many factories are regarded as export processing zones. There is a declaration they will need to make of what percentage of the tea they will be retaining for local sale and the percentage they will be exporting. This is part of the clean-up. Section Nine was fairly controversial because it was about the Kenyan tea and the ban of direct sales that we had at that time. The argument was meant to protect the auction and because of the auction in Mombasa, tea farmers have continued to get value out of their crop because of the competition that exists amongst buyers. However, it was getting to a point where multinationals and certain private factories were signing private treaties and selling off the tea without taking it to the auction. That compromised the price the tea farmers were getting. There have been arguments by economists both ways but at that time, we were inclined to have the law as was previously, where direct sales were allowed. As an entity receiving tea from the public, you were meant to sell your tea at a higher price than the average of the last three months of the auction. We therefore, wanted to make that window open but we did not do it at that time because of the history I had given earlier. Madam Temporary Chairperson, this is now an attempt to do it through this Bill. That is why Section 34(a) is being amended to provide that the trade of tea shall be either by auction or direct sales. In Clause (2) of that, it provides that all tea produced, processed and manufactured in Kenya for the export market shall be registered with the Board prior to exportation. You give a declaration so that we control. There are many things we want to do, some of which are not captured in this Bill. The Committee has recommended to the House certain amendments when we go to the Committee of the Whole. As a keen follower of this process, I am determined. For example, at that time, we made a demand to all processors of tea from 2020, that 40 percent of all the tea produced in the country must be value added. The story of tea is extremely sad. If you go to a supermarket down the street in London and pick the packet, the tea that is inside that particular packet, there is not a single thing that has been added from what was processed at Nyansiongo Tea Factory where Sen. Omogeni comes from. However, the value that the farmers that sold tea leaves to Nyansiongo Tea Factory, that tea gets at best is 45 percent to 50 percent. The other 50 percent is on the value added, and what is the value added? It is just a package and the brand; calling it Twinnings, Liptons, Kenyan-made Tea, Black English Breakfast Tea. I asked somebody, what is this thing they call English breakfast tea? It is a brand that has been marketed and sold across the world. If you go anywhere, they ask you: “Which tea do you want, Chinese or English Breakfast Tea?” I have told the President, times without number, that before the end of this term, we must sell and be intentional about it, Kenyan black tea, until it sticks in the mind of everybody across the world; that if you go anywhere and act daft, see people as they sell and say, please, give me Kenyan black tea. So, part of that provision that we made in that law, is that in eight years, all processors and manufacturers need to value-add at least 40 percent of that tea. I will be proposing and requesting my colleagues that we bring down that period to five years. Eight years is such a long time. In five years, from 2020, even though many of the The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}