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{
    "id": 1566543,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1566543/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 296,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "think we over legislate and we are in the business of creating offices for certain individuals. One of the biggest problems that I have with this piece of legislation is the establishment of the director of cooperatives at the national level. There is establishment of a director of cooperative at the county level. I have had a very negative experience on the issue of cooperatives. The process is selective and it is predetermined. Once you become selective in the process of registering a cooperative society, you predetermine how even the bylaws should be drafted and that is a recipe for disaster. If we had fully implemented the Warehouse Receipt System Act, today, the farmers in Narok County would not be using empty fields to dry their wheat. They would send money into county governments, set up warehouses, set up silos and driers so that the moisture content in wheat can be one that millers can come and buy and farmers can benefit. Today, when we come here with a very long Bill - I am still reading it; it has about 284 pages long. My only conclusion is that we are going the wrong direction. We are over legislating. We talk about devolution. Agriculture is devolved. By and large, when we interrogate this Bill, it talks about produce; how people can come together, work together to be able to produce. Today, we have a Cabinet Secretary in charge of cooperatives, but this Bill wants to set up a director of cooperatives at the national level. Then what is the job of that Cabinet Secretary, if we have a director at the national level? Agriculture is devolved, health is devolved, but we are still clawing back on devolution. When it comes to the Committee of the Whole, of this Bill, we must scrutinize and go through it with a toothpick to ensure that, firstly, we do not over legislate; secondly, we do not create offices for particular individuals who will be living large, collecting money from farmers or members of a cooperative, drive big SUVs and live in Karen, yet the farmers themselves struggle in terms of developing and storing their produce. Then once they sell, these directors come and say, we want our levy. I have always had a problem with the Kenya Dairy Board because I think it is completely misplaced. It does not understand the challenges that farmers go through; the adulteration of the milk in this country or the challenges that women in our counties face when they do not have a proper call chain. I wish the Kenya Dairy Board was investing heavily in developing a good call chain, so that when farmers milk, they take it directly to the call chain without going through brokers."
}