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{
    "id": 1546451,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1546451/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 220,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Caroli Omondi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I will also try and be very brief. I rise to support this Motion by Hon. Atandi where he is calling upon this House to resolve that the national Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, promotes local fertiliser manufacturing by investing in research. I would like to focus on the issue of research and why this Motion is important. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I believe we are talking about manufacturing modern synthetic fertilizer; 40 per cent of the cost of fertiliser used in this country has nothing to do with its production. It is basically transportation and port handling charges. In other words, if we produce the synthetic fertiliser locally, it will almost be half the cost of fertiliser in this country because it comes in liquid, solid and gaseous form. Therefore, it is very difficult to handle it. Firstly, let me tell you two stories, so that you understand where the problem is. In 1975, the Government of Kenya entered into a fertiliser manufacturing deal with an American company called Ken-Ren. They formed a parastatal called Kenya Chemical and Fertiliser Manufacturing Company (Ken-Ren). This company then entered into a financing arrangement with two banks, namely, Belgian and Austrian. They then procured two entities, Coupe Lavalin of Belgium and Voestalpine of Austria, to supply manufacturing equipment. The value of that transaction was Ksh350 million at that time, and the interest rate was 8.5 per cent. Three years later, no equipment had been supplied and Ken-Ren went into receivership. The Government of Kenya had guaranteed that particular loan. We ended up paying about Ksh5.1 billion without any fertiliser manufacturing plant being established. I have another story. Two large Japanese corporations were invited by the Government of Kenya in 2015, namely, Toyota Tsusho and Marubeni. Toyota Tsusho was contracted to build Ksh135 billion fertiliser manufacturing plant in Eldoret which is not working. This is the second bad experience. In the earlier case of Ken-Ren, when the company went into receivership, the Government of Kenya went to court in London. It ruled that Kenya was a victim of deceit. However, the suppliers went to appeal in Cyprus and got a judgement against the Republic of Kenya. We paid Ksh5.1 billion for a factory that did not exist. If we do any research, we should ask ourselves how comes attempts to establish a fertiliser manufacturing company in Kenya on two occasions; in 1975 and 2015, failed. We all know that fertiliser is manufactured from urea oil. Kenya does not have commercial quantities of oil, phosphates, potassium and potash. The only component that we have is nitrogen. Therefore, when we are talking about manufacturing of fertiliser, it is important that we understand that we should focus on blending or granulation. In other words, it is importing pre-manufactured fertiliser and then blending it to create products that meet local conditions. The Toyota Tsusho Factory was supposed to produce blended Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium (NPK) Fertiliser, Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) Fertiliser and Calcium Ammonium Nitrate (CAN) Fertiliser, but that is not the case. 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."
}