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"id": 392168,
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"content": "are in the ladder, the more challenges you face. This should be our focus and I agree with Sen. Kittony when she said that there are small-scale farmers who at one point had to uproot their coffee because it was no-longer viable. In the world market, we know that coffee is as good as gold and just like the Stock Exchange, there are coffee auction houses in the world where money is really made. But this is done by small-scale farmers who get very little out of what they do. In the Kenyan scenario, what really makes me mad when I visit Europe is that our tea and coffee are of the highest quality alongside the Colombia coffee, but when the Kenyan tea, which is so premium, grown and harvested in Kenya lands in the United Kingdom, it is turned into what is called English Breakfast Tea. The best tea anywhere you go in the world is the English breakfast tea. But the English breakfast tea is our tea from Kericho and Limuru. There is not a single tea bush in the United Kingdom (UK), and I stand to be challenged on that. Whenever I go outside the country, I always see green tea from China and so on, but go for the English breakfast tea, because it tastes like KETEPA tea. But I am sure that KETEPA is only known here in Kenya. Madam Temporary Speaker, I think that the most important thing regarding this Motion is the issue of branding. We must brand our tea. The Kenyan tea must go as “Kericho whatever”, “Limuru whatever” or just “Kenyan breakfast tea.” Unless we do that, this hierarchy of exploitation will go on, such that, you pay maybe US$5 for a cup of that English breakfast tea, but the farmer who produced that tea gets peanuts. That is the crux of the matter, because from the time that he is exploited, there is somebody else who packages it and there are auction houses in this country. Then, it goes to the main auction house in London or wherever. From there, it is spread to the rest of the world. Madam Temporary Speaker, this does not apply only for tea and coffee, but even our flowers. Kenyan flowers are the best in the world. They go to The Netherlands, get into an auction house and are repackaged under another name. So, we have a major challenge with regard to issues of branding our products. We need to ensure that these products are produced, owned and marketed by Kenyans, until it goes to the cup of the consumer, wherever he may be in the world, as a Kenyan product and brand. I think that, that is a very key issue that I would like to address. Madam Temporary Speaker, there is also the issue of exploitation. Our production is so skewed towards manipulation and exploitation of the primary producer. The primary producer is the most hit in our agriculture. I want to give an example of livestock, which is the field that I know. A cow is delivered and the farmer stays with it for five years. He survives in hot sun and faces shiftas for five years with that animal. Now that he has a problem of school fees or a sick person and has to get money; he, therefore, takes the animal to the market. Somebody comes from a shower from a lodging and asks: “Hiiunauza pesa ngapi?” When the farmer says “Kshs10,000,” he is told: “ Utapata wapiKshs10,000? Hii ni 7,000 tu na hata huna habari ya soko la Nairobi?” Then he is forced to part with that animal for Kshs7,000. That person who showered and bought the animal puts it on a lorry and takes it to Kiamaiko here in Nairobi and sells it for Kshs40,000 to somebody who slaughters it. This guy who slaughters it, cuts it into pieces and sells it to a hotelier and maybe gets Kshs100,000. The guy at the hotel sells it as beef steak or sirloin steak and sells it to you and makes Kshs200,000; and yet this is the same animal! 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."
}