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"id": 221387,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/221387/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Bett",
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"speaker": {
"id": 157,
"legal_name": "Franklin Kipng'etich Bett",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to second this Motion. I want, at the outset, to indicate that I am a tea farmer. I know the pain that these farmers are going through at the hands of the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) factories. Those factories are built by the farmers themselves. Farmers are now required to contribute, as you heard this morning, 50 per cent of the total cost of the factory. One single line of a factory is Kshs120 million. Now, 50 per cent of that is supposed to be contributed by the poor farmer who is also supposed to look after many other things in his life. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, after that allocation has been done, the remaining 50 per cent is a loan, which, again, should be paid back by the farmer. In all these, the Government is nowhere on site except to be an agent in assisting the farmer and taxing these poor farmers. The Government needs to really come in and contribute to the construction of these factories. You have heard that there is a lot of increase in the production of tea leaves not necessarily out of increased acreage, but because of good husbandry in the production of tea. Our farmers are now becoming hi- tech. They are being more intelligent in terms of minding their tea bushes. As a result, a lot of tea leaves is now being delivered to the current factories. There is need, at the moment, to increase the number of lines so that where there are three lines, we have four lines. That will cost Kshs120 million in each of those factories across the country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Act is such that it does not allow Mr. Angwenyi to build a factory to support what the farmers have done. Therefore, there is also an urgency to encourage private sector involvement in tea production so that farmers are lifted out of the problems that they are facing today. That is why you hear of farmers selling tea to companies such as Unilever and James Finlay. The same farmers can contribute money and build their own factories, but the law does not allow them to do so. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) is now a huge animal. It looks after 57 tea factories. Going by what we were told in the morning, other tea factories are in the pipeline. That gives us a total of 63 tea factories. Sooner or later, there will be 70 tea factories in the country. All these factories are putting a lot of pressure at the headquarters here in Nairobi. The headquarters is, therefore, forced to charge a higher commission in order to attend to these factories. That is taking away money from farmers. There is also the issue of directors who manage all these factories. They take money away from farmers by way of giving themselves allowances. That is, again, money from farmers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is also the issue of transport and bad roads. Transport, in itself, is creating a lot of losses. Tea leaves do not reach the factories on time and that means reduction or a negative impact on the quality of that tea. When the quality of tea is reduced, it means that it will fetch a lower price in the world market. That means that what will end up in the farmer's hands is, again, reduced by that poor quality of tea which is occasioned by the poor roads in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we continue to have all these, it is the farmer who is bearing the cost. That is where the Government needs to come in and help farmers, by either constructing roads or building factories. That will alleviate the burden on the farmer. Mechanical costs on vehicles are borne by the farmers. The workers who man the vehicles have to be paid overtime and that is still another cost on the farmer. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the farmer has suffered a great deal and the Government must come in to help and to save the farmer from going into abject poverty. We also 1380 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 16, 2007 need the Government to assist those farmers, after they have been to the factory, they need mini- hydro power generation from the rivers in the neighbourhood. That will save our forests and reduce on cost of fuel which affects foreign exchange. It will also reduce pollution on our roads if we use generated power from the rivers within the vicinity. But we continue to have such problems and yet we know that James Finlay and Unilever, for example, are generating their own power. Why can we not use the God given power from the water in those rivers to generate power so that the farmers' problems are saved? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, bureaucracy at the Kenya Tea Development Agency is costing the farmers a lot of money. The bureaucracy is taking money from the farmer. I would like to say that the Government has already set a precedence. It has assisted the sugar farmers by giving them Kshs7 billion. Coffee farmers were also given Kshs7 billion. The National Bank of Kenya (NBK) was also given Kshs16 billion. It has also given cotton and pyrethrum boards have also been assisted. What is wrong with assisting the tea farmers? I want to urge the Government that the tea farmers need to be assisted by the Government by removing those expenses on them. They should construct a factory in every area that it is required. Mr. Angwenyi, listed the areas and there are many more. It should be done like that so that the farmers can reap from their sweat. Otherwise, they are sweating while others are enjoying elsewhere. The farmers are suffering!With those few remarks, I beg to second."
}