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"speaker_name": "Dr. Khalwale",
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"content": "We also want to sustain the production of high quality tea which, by the way, is used in the whole world for blending because Kenyan tea is the best quality in the whole world. Through this Motion, we seek to maintain and further Kenyan’s pridal place as the producer of large quantities of tea. We further, in this Motion, seek to expand our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and, indeed, spur the entire economy. We further seek, through this Motion to contribute to the strengthening of the battered Kenyan currency. If we increase the amount of tea we are selling in the international market, it attracts foreign exchange and in the process, it strengthens the Kenya Shilling. This is how crucial this Motion is. Further, through this Motion, we intend to increase jobs in the tea industry. Today, the tea industry employs 3 million young people. If this Motion sails through, I have done arithmetic on the computer and it is clear in my mind that we will create a further 7 million jobs and you can imagine what we will do to our youth who are leaving universities and other institutions of learning if there is an extra 7 million jobs. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, tea farming is not done in Mombasa and in Nairobi City neither is it done in Kisumu City. It is done in the very rural areas, where the people we represent, as Members of Parliament, live. So, if we pass this Motion, we will reduce rural poverty and reduce rural-urban migration. Finally, through this Motion, we want to give an opportunity to the concept of county governments. Counties with tea factories will have an opportunity to have a stable economic base through which they can become more autonomous and contribute to the larger national economy. That I am asking the Government to take over these loans is nothing new. It is the trend that is invoked worldwide. Recently, I came from the US and I was privileged to be with Madam Speaker on that trip. You will remember when we were there, the big news was how the Obama Government was bailing out corporations. The Obama Government has bailed out Chrysler, the motor car producer. The Obama Government, when we were there, you and I, you heard, had given US$500 million, equivalent to Kshs50 billion to Solyndra. So, to ask our Kenya Government to take over these particular loans is doing something that is modernistic and futuristic and that is where we want the leadership of Kenya to take our people. I would like, at this point, so that Members realise the crucial role that this sector plays in our economy, to make a few highlights on what our tea farmers are doing. Number one, tea farmers were the number one foreign exchange earner for this country. We earned Kshs97 billion from tea farming. In fact, we overtook tourism. Now, compare the amount of investment that the Government puts in tourism with the little we are asking of them; taking over these loans! It makes more sense to leave the investment we have made in tourism where it is and the savings we make, we pay off these small loans so that our farmers can take it as an incentive. The gross revenue that we got from this farming was Kshs54.6 billion up from Kshs51.7 billion that was earned in the previous year. Our farmers earned Kshs30.5 billion in the year 2010/2011 compared to Kshs28 billion which they earned in the previous year. The monthly payments that enable our farmers to put food on their tables, buy uniform for primary school children, buy text books and small things like pencils for our children, farmers were paid a whooping Kshs10 billion. Indeed, we must do everything possible to retain tea as the number one foreign exchange earner having overtaken tourism. I cannot conclude this Motion without sharing with Members those things that we can do so as to expand the performance of tea because I have talked of an ambitious 7 million new jobs. If we want to achieve the 7 million new jobs, we cannot get it simply by taking over the loans, as a Government. We could do more and there is plenty of room, for example, management of the monetary policy at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). The CBK should develop a better monetary policy which is favourable for foreign exchange rates. This is a huge challenge if what has been going into the volatile forex market is anything to go by."
}