Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1382571,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1382571/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 67,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Uasin Gishu County, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Gladys Boss",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for the opportunity to speak to this Bill. I would like to salute the Member for Teso, Hon. Mary Emaase, for this very important Bill. It is timely. She has brought attention to this at a time when we are trying to raise our cash crops in order to improve the value of the Kenya Shilling. I remember many years ago when I was young and the cotton industry was big. RIVATEX in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, where my father, Andrew Bomet Boss, worked until he retired recently, was a booming business. It was not just a booming business but, the cotton they were processing in the factory was actually from within the country. In the last Parliament, I remember we allocated a lot of funds to RIVATEX to modernise the factory and produce very high-quality cotton which it does at the moment. Unfortunately, we are not getting the full benefit as Kenyans because 80 to 90 per cent of the cotton they are using is imported. The people who are benefiting from the cash injection that was made to RIVATEX are not our local farmers. We are supporting farmers from other countries and tenderpreneurs. It has not boiled down to the grassroots level. Therefore, as parliamentarians, we must join hands to ensure that as we put money in the factory to produce cotton, we also put money in the growing of cotton by our farmers. That way, the benefit will be 360 degrees cycle as opposed to the current situation where it is only a part of it. Many years ago, Kenya used to produce uniforms but today, school uniforms are being imported from other countries. They are very bad quality and they are benefiting other people from other countries. Kenya signed up the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) agreement and we received a specific quota to produce cotton fabric and clothes like jeans, overalls, et cetera, in our Export Processing Zones (EPZ) for export to America and Europe. Unfortunately, we have not been able to realise our full quota. In fact, the agreement is expiring this year yet we have not benefited from it because we were not strategic and deliberate as a country to run in parallel the two programmes. If you sign the AGOA agreement, you start increasing cotton growing. As you increase cotton growing, you inject money into the factories for the production of that. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"
}