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{
    "id": 1371248,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1371248/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 241,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mungatana, MGH",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "declarations and budgetary interventions which will not solve the problem. We are putting a legal framework. In this proposed law, we are saying that if you are a buyer, you cannot also go back through the value chain. This is so that the problem that the common farmer was having; that he does not know the price he was going to sell his coffee beans for, is now solved. This is because that buyer cannot be going down all the way to do that other work that the farmer will be doing. The same Clause 27 in subclause 11 says- “A holder of a commercial miller’s license or any other entity associated with such holder shall not carry on the business of a buyer, broker, roaster, or agent.” This means the miller of coffee beans cannot be on the other side of the value chain production. What has it done? It has removed the idea that people used to create companies, they would be the same people who were buying, they were the agents, and brokers. The farmer is approached by a person who tells him; we are buying this coffee from this factory at this price. The farmer has no way of fighting back. The price is given by what this person thinks because he is the miller, the agent, the broker, and the buyer at the same time. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I really congratulate the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries because they have thought through this Bill very well. I am very happy that they have made it clear that this Bill is emancipating coffee farmers from the hands of Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA). AFA was a body that was being used to kill the coffee industry. It was not assisting coffee farmers in any way. They made it very difficult. Even when the coffee reforms were being spearheaded by the Deputy President, through its agents or employees, AFA was still trying to make it difficult so that these reforms do not find it into legislation. I am happy that as a Senate, we are actually participating in helping the common farmer remove brokers who have been milking them dry. The farmer will now be able to get at least some of the benefits of the labor that they have put in. It is a shame that a farmer can sell one kilogram at Kshs100 and when he goes to the shop, he finds the one kilogram selling at Kshs600. I am very happy to support what this Bill is proposing. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, so that Kenyans can understand what we are doing here, there was a proposal in this Bill that farmers will now be able to sell and trade with coffee in three ways. The first one is the auction in the coffee exchange. The second one is direct sales and the third one is, any such methods that the Cabinet Secretary may prescribe. This proposed Clause 46 of the Bill is another emancipating section of this Law. This allows the ordinary coffee farmer to be able to do direct sales. It has been a very strange arrangement where you are not able to sell your coffee. You, who has planted, bought the fertiliser, and the pesticides and made sure that all the inputs are there, cannot sell it the way you want. That is very strange. Why? It was because of the arrangement of this whole sector. It was punitive and exploitative to the common coffee farmer. As I said, it was the same person who was posing as an agent, who was a miller, and a buyer."
}