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{
    "id": 392076,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/392076/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 89,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, this Motion came to my mind after looking at what has been happening in our country for the last 50 years. When I looked at the records, from 1963 to 1987, coffee was the biggest foreign exchange earner for this country. This trait continued up to 1987 when the prices of coffee fell in the world market. Up to 1987, Kenya was exporting coffee worth USA$445.6 million on average per year. In 1987, this fell to USA$277.7 million. Therefore, I am moving this Motion to request the Government to do a simple and basic thing. The Government of the Republic of Kenya in the last many years has set aside funds to support farmers of maize in this country. It has even gone ahead to set aside funds to subsidize prices of fertilizer. The coffee and tea sectors have either been neglected or forgotten. My Motion is to advise the Government and to put the Government in a situation whereby Kenyan farmers, more so, the tea and coffee farmers will not be allowed to suffer any more. Madam Temporary Speaker, this trend of overlooking tea and coffee farmers has continued year in, year out. This has been experienced during the present and previous governments. Kenya has had peaceful transitions. There is no one time that we can say that there was a Government that succeeded another Government by use of force. The power to succeed and to get into Government is given by Kenyans. So, it upon every Government to see what the previous Government had been doing and identify what the incumbent Government needed to do. If truly there is money which has been set aside to purchase maize or put aside to support maize farmers, it would be important to have a similar allocation for coffee and tea. Let us consider what has happened to coffee over the last two year, where a 50 kilogramme bag of coffee was sold at USA$324. In a duration of two months, the same 50 kilogramme bag of coffee was sold for USA$500. It would be important for the Government to set aside some money, buy the coffee from farmers, keep it and sell it when the market is right. That way, farmers would benefit. In addition, the country will earn maximum returns from the coffee and tea that is grown here. As at 1987, 600 co-operative societies had been established through the coffee sector. If you take an average of 100 workers being employed by each co-operative society, that would be about 60,000 jobs created, not looking at what will be earned by the country in the form of hard currency and other returns. That is one thing that we are looking forward to and that is what we want to give to Kenyans. The priority of every leader, including the Government, is to create jobs for the benefit of Kenyans. When there was a shortage of maize in the country, the Government spent close to Kshs10 billion to import maize from South Africa and other countries. Most of this money was borrowed. I remember that we sanctioned this in Parliament. If we had strengthened what we have, first of all, and sold our coffee and tea with good returns, that money would have been used to import maize instead of borrowing from foreigners and begging them to give us money actually to buy food. Therefore, the Government should not let what we have get destroyed and then start chasing after foreigners to help us. Madam Temporary Speaker, Kenyan coffee and tea are among the best. I have travelled quite a lot in this world and surprisingly, despite Kenya being a producer of the highest quality of coffee, there is not a single restaurant in America where you will be served Kenyan coffee. You will be served Colombian coffee and so on, yet people are The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}