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{
"id": 1371179,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1371179/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
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"content": "become afloat. They were misguided. I, therefore, strongly support that the CBK must be there as a stand-alone just like a KSB should also be there as a stand-alone and so on. Mr. Speaker, when I say these things, I remember that many countries in the world produce coffee. The number one coffee producer is Brazil followed by Switzerland. Unlike us, Brazil, Switzerland and other coffee-producing countries have various types of coffee brands. However, as Kenyans, we have the best brand called Arabica. Arabica is distinctive. It has a strong aroma and flavour. What is more with the Kenya Arabica Coffee is that it has an after taste of wine. People who partake of it and pretend they do not take alcohol are there, somewhere in the middle, taking alcohol and having more or less the same effects. They do not have to go to their priest and repent that they partook of alcohol. It is this uniqueness of the Kenyan Arabica Coffee that keeps on worrying me every day. What went wrong? Once upon a time, in my community, Kakamega and Bungoma counties were serious producers of coffee. However, that enterprise has gone. It is shameful that the coffee trees were uprooted without caring about where we were as a country. We were not doing badly. Whereas Brazil is number one and Switzerland number two, Kenya is a strong number 16 in the whole world. Mr. Speaker, Sir, all we needed was imagination from the Government to ensure that we support this particular sector. Where do people need support? Farmers need support on pricing. There is no responsible government that sits there and does not address the issue of the agricultural produce by their farmers. We must do something about pricing. As you do so, you tweak the price in such a manner that there is no farmer who at the end of a season, declares a net loss. Responsible governments across the world give farmers guaranteed minimum returns. Mr. Speaker, Sir, my predecessor, the Senator of Narok County, who I thought knew things only about milk, has impressed me. He has talked about the cartels. Do not get it wrong. The cartels we are talking about in coffee sector are not from pastoralists. They are from the coffee-growing areas. In Mt. Kenya, the cartels are the people from there. These people understand the industry so well that they know how to play around with it. They take advantage of the small-scale growers. In this country, coffee farming supports six million people. Of these six million people, 800,000 are small-scale farmers. Throw your mind to Kilifi County, a small-scale farmer is an innocent person who knows that he will go to the farm, till the land, and at the end of it, there is harvest. They do not know about the complexities of local and international markets, cooperatives and so on. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the criminals from that area who then becomes part of the cartels take advantage of this family. This is where the Government must come in to protect the farmer by getting rid of the cartels. I congratulate the Deputy President. He has been very strong on the issue of cartels, but he does not finish the statement. He should finish it by saying who those characters are. One of these days, some people will take a record of people who complete statements. We want leaders who will be completing statements. If the cartel is Sen. Nyamu, name her so that she can then challenge you for defamation and what have you,"
}