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{
    "id": 194802,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/194802/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 144,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. ole Metito",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Regional Development Authorities",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 199,
        "legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
        "slug": "judah-ole-metito"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I would like to support the Motion as amended. First, I would like to thank both the Mover of the Motion and the Mover of the amendment for thinking it wise to look into this very important sector of our society, that is, farming. They have gone beyond the post election violence and tried to widen up what the Motion is talking about. The AFC is supposed to cater for two categories of farmers. These are the crop farmers and the livestock farmers. There is a problem here in terms of misplacement of departments. The AFC side that deals with crop farming should be placed under the Ministry of Agriculture while the one that handles livestock farming should be placed under the Ministry of Livestock Development. In order to have good co-ordination and supervision, it is high time we separated the two areas. However, on the issue of writing-off the loans due to the AFC and ADC, the Government has written-off the loans owed by coffee farmers and others before. So, I see no problem at all in extending the same facility to the other group of farmers who have the AFC loans. A lot has been said about why we should write-off these loans. 876 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 7, 2008 Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, allow me to talk about my constituency, Loitoktok. The farmers in this constituency have got about Kshs60 million, that is, Kshs15 million in arrears and slightly over Kshs40 million owed to AFC and ADC. My area was not affected by the post-election violence, thanks to my constituents who maintained peace. However, they cannot really pay these AFC loans, the reason being that there was severe drought in that area and the few farmers who harvested their crop took their maize to the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB). They have not been paid to date. Those who took loans, and whose business venture was livestock, were affected by a severe drought even before the general elections. Between July and November, 2007, there was a severe drought in that area and in other parts of the country. So, the securities the farmers used to get the loans cannot yield returns that were expected. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the interest charged by the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) is not so bad. It is 10 per cent per annum. However, the main issue is the security demanded by the AFC, which is in the form of title deeds or any tangible assets. If you go to the areas that were affected by the post-election violence, you will see that a lot of people's properties were destroyed. A lot of houses were torched. People cannot even trace their title deeds. There is no security at all. It is good that we write off those loans. As a way of motivating the affected farmers to re-settle in their farms, we must write off their loans. If we will give them money, so that they can re-build their houses, then we should also off-load them the burden of repaying the AFC loans they are currently servicing."
}