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"content": "devolved, I would like this Senate to be on the front line. When I bring my Statement on levies which are being introduced and are now killing businesses, I hope that the Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock Development, the Director of Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) and even the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) will be called here. There are things that shock me. We have got the KEBS, which we should be supporting completely because of the expertise that they have, but we do not even when it comes to the issue of seeds. This is really shocking if you listen to it. Today, for you to have a type of seed such as beans, you need certification and authority from the KEPHIS. It will take you probably a whole year or two or three years to get permission from the KEPHIS. You need that seed to be certified then KEBS has to approve. Why not move everything to KEBS, empower it, and build the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) to take care of everything agriculture? Since agriculture is devolved, we should encourage county governments to invest heavily in research. We cannot all be depending on the national Government structure for all policies and also in terms of implementation. We are now going there, yet agriculture is devolved. We need to be clear on how we are going to deal with the issue of food security. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, allow me to check my notes because I have one more point that I seem to be forgetting, which I think is very important. This is the beauty of technology. There is one more levy which is very important, but I know my time is up. There is an increase in the phytosanitary fees, which has moved from 15 to 337 per cent. What logic are these people using to increase all these fees? This is concerning and everybody out there should be concerned. As we sit here as Senators, we must be cognizant of what is happening out there. Food is becoming expensive because the Government is making it expensive. Authorities such as KEPHIS are increasing fees. We know that we want buyer safety, but honestly, can we not work with AFA, now that we introduced it, to make it easy? Can we not promote KEBS, so that it is easy to do business? I want to end by saying this. If you look at the tonnage of wheat or beans grown in Tanzania, 10 years ago, it was at the same level as Kenya. We were producing about 600,000 or 700,000 tonnes of beans per year. However, because of the rigid certification process in this country led by KEPHIS, today, Tanzania is producing over a million tonnes of beans, yet we have stagnated at the same level of 500,000, 600,000 or 700,000 tonnes per year. We will never grow. On top of that, our produce is more expensive than our neighbouring countries. We need to think of consequences and unintended consequences of introducing these levies. If we introduce these levies, we should ask ourselves what will happen in our neighbouring countries. People will stop importing anything into this country. They will be exporting everything to Tanzania and Uganda, because it is cheaper to do business there than in this country. Many farmers are leaving. Yesterday, I had some guests from the British High Commission who visited me. They said that all people who had invested in this country from Britain have left because of the fact that we do not have a stable taxation system. It is not predictable. 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."
}