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{
    "id": 403696,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/403696/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 107,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "and diseases, among other things, affect our crops and animals. If someone had taken a loan to carry out livestock farming and a disease breaks out such that a cow does not survive the weather, where would he or she get money to pay back even if it is 3 per cent? My argument is that there must be an insurance cover so that if such things happen, the Government takes responsibility. The Government should meet the obligations and pay off what the farmers have requested. In the current budget, the Government has invested heavily in irrigation. They will irrigate one million acres of land. My argument is that, that is a lot of money. I have seen what has been budgeted for. If this money is advanced interest free to our farmers, we will achieve three times what we are supposed to achieve in irrigation. You will find that the areas we come from have good weather and arable land. We can plant maize and everything else. The problem we have is in relation to inputs. You will find that farm inputs are very expensive. Diesel, fertilizers and seeds are all very expensive. If the money that goes to irrigation was given to the small scale farmers, then Kenya would be self sustainable in terms of food production, hence, all the noises we are hearing would not be there. My argument is that we need to refocus. As we talk about Vision 2030 and say that Kenya is an industrialised nation, are we also taking care of our small scale farmers? I come from an area where if some of you, who have not been there passed by, would think that people are extremely rich. Kericho is a county that is ever green, from January to December. We have rain throughout the year. If you see our tea plantations, you will think that these are golf courses. Some people think that this is an airstrip. However, these are tea plantations. People think that the highest earner of foreign exchange is tea. However, if you see the small scale tea farmers, you will think that they are not happy to be associated with what we are saying, that Kenya earns a lot of foreign exchange through tea. We must ask ourselves who is marketing our tea. If you go to Britain, Japan and many other countries, you will not find Kenyan tea, but Lipton Tea. Lipton Tea is a buyer stationed in Mombasa and it is owned by Uniliver Company. It has a big plantation in Kericho and part of Limuru. They are the ones who are controlling tea prices. They have opened offices in Pakistan, Russia and many other countries that buy our tea. They are the ones who are controlling our marketing offices. It would be good for the Government to change our marketing strategy within the Government so that we market our Kenyan tea because our tea is the best. When some of us, who come from Kericho, taste our tea out there, we notice that it has been blended. You will find that countries out there have tea from Vietnam, India and many other countries. They blend our good tea and call it English Tea. So, if you happen to say that you are from Kenya; you are told that this is a country with good tea. However, if you visit the farmers in Kisii, you will find that they are all suffering. It is prudent that farmers are given leverage and financial stability so that they get what they deserve. We must get rid of middlemen and middle women. With those few remarks, I support the Motion."
}