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"content": "and the bixa factory decided to classify these crops as scheduled crops, meaning that they could only be sold at a certain price dictated to them either by the Government or by the factory owners. It reached a point where the prices were very low for very long. This became a disincentive for the farmers and as a result of that, the cashew nut factory collapsed. The bixa factory is also struggling because of the low prices they were offering. Farmers decided to do other things with their land. There is a saying in Kiswahili to the fact that uerevu ukizidi, unakuwa ujinga . That is what happened to the cashew nut factory at the Coast. We welcome the liberalization of all crops. Let the market decide where the price of crops will settle so that farmers can get maximum returns for their hard work. There has been a tendency, of late, to levy taxes on raw cashew nuts being exported out of this country. The same applies to raw hides and skins. This is ostensibly to encourage local industries and value addition. Unfortunately, because there is not enough expansion of the productive capacity in value addition and we do not have more factories being established to buy these crops, the people who export raw cashew nuts, hides and skins end up passing the Export Duty to the farmers in the form of lower prices. So, the farmers suffer as a result of those taxes. They are neither protected nor are the local industries protected. The industries are not coming up fast enough either due to capital constraints, high cost of energy, insecurity and other factors which discourage people from investing in Kenya. I urge the Minister to be very careful about levying these taxes. The motive is good but the desired effect is not achieved. The Minister has talked about placing restrictions on farmland that is being converted into residential, industrial or for other commercial uses. Again, this is a noble objective but we hope that it will not be another avenue for people to demand and receive bribes when somebody wants to change into another use. Commissions and authorities are established with noble intentions but they end up being monsters created for people to enrich themselves by making unreasonable restrictions and collecting rent for themselves. With those few remarks, I beg to support this Bill."
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