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{
"id": 1472509,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1472509/?format=api",
"text_counter": 205,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Githunguri, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Gathoni Wamuchomba",
"speaker": null,
"content": "yet all coffee farmers are not in Nairobi. Why can't the main headquarters of the Coffee Board of Kenya be domiciled in Meru, Nyeri, Trans Nzoia, or Baringo, where we have coffee? Why must we bring Coffee Board of Kenya offices to Nairobi when the farmers are in the villages? Let us consider that coffee is a rural crop, and we do not have to bring the headquarters of the Coffee Board of Kenya to Nairobi for us to be seen to be working. So, I promise to bring an amendment because we punish our farmers through the logistics of coming to Nairobi when they do not have to. I also do not understand why coffee as a sub-sector has to be subjected to the bureaucracies of four ministries for it to be able to achieve anything in the coffee sub-sector. Coffee is under the Ministry of Trade, Investments, and Industry; Ministry of Cooperative, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development; Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development; and the National Treasury. By the way, county governments are also involved. So, whenever coffee farmers want something, they have to be staggered in all four ministries to achieve anything. Why can we not domicile coffee in one ministry? Why can we not say every other activity of coffee is under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development or the Ministry of Cooperatives, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development? These bureaucracies create many delays, and therefore, nothing moves. It is bureaucracy after bureaucracy. I will bring an amendment, and I hope it goes through so that we can streamline the functionality of this sub-sector. A clause indicates that for any farmer to cut down a coffee tree, they must get authorisation from the county government through the County Executive Committee Member (CECM). That, to me, is very oppressive. Why must we force a farmer to go and line up at the county government offices if they want to uproot their coffee and plant a new breed? Currently, I am a coffee farmer. I am already uprooting my old trees to plant the new variety because the weather has changed. Do I have to go to the CECM of Kiambu County to be allowed to uproot my coffee? This is punitive, and we must not go through that route. So, I will propose an amendment, and I hope I will succeed so that I can streamline that idea. I cannot keep quiet when we are introducing levies after levies in the coffee sub-sector. It is good that we have brought back the Coffee Research Institute (CRI); it is good that we have brought back the Coffee Board of Kenya, and it is good that we have introduced the county governments as key players. But already, the county governments are taxing farmers through licensing palping centres. If the farmer is already paying a levy for a palping centre to be licensed, why does that farmer have to pay another levy when they sell their coffee? This is double taxation, and it will not happen. So, I still urge this House to allow us to make amendments so that farmers do not pay double levies in their value chain of coffee. I am excited that after many political games and dances in the coffee sector, the Coffee Bill (Senate Bill No.10 of 2023) has finally seen the light of day. We are debating this Bill, and I am hopeful that the coffee farmers are finally going to get value for the energy they put into the coffee sector. Before I conclude, coffee is a serious crop in this country that brings a lot of revenue in Kenya. By the way, the coffee sub-sector is supposed to be administered by its own ministry based on the amount of money it generates in this country. I still do not understand why we play politics with coffee; I still do not understand why we feel we are over-favouring coffee farmers. The money allocated in this House as a Coffee-Revolving Advanced Cherry Fund can be reallocated by one public officer without seeking clearance from this House or getting an opinion from the farmers and writing a letter expressly reallocating coffee monies to other sectors. I do not have a problem with other people receiving money; coffee money must be respected, and coffee farmers must be respected. Anybody trying to play around with coffee farmers' money must be told off and reminded that the coffee sector brought the development we see in some of the white highland areas of Kericho, Baringo, Nyeri, and Kiambu. We cannot 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."
}