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"id": 4105,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/4105/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kinyanjui",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Roads",
"speaker": {
"id": 48,
"legal_name": "Lee Maiyani Kinyanjui",
"slug": "lee-kinyanjui"
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"content": " Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to participate in this very important debate on the Motion. I wish to start on the outset by congratulating the Mover of this Motion who is not here now, but nevertheless, he has done well for the people of Kenya and, more so, for the many farmers out there who have educated their children and fed their families through the growing of coffee and tea. As you know, in the recent years, we have had significant challenges in these two crops and I think this Motion is very timely because it gives us the opportunity to address some of the challenges that are facing these crops. From the outset, it has been proven that growth in the agricultural sector is the surest way for us to provide employment for our young people back in the rural areas. We have had arguments that we can start factories and industries, but all those can only be found within the urban centres. If we are to provide employment in the rural areas, then we must empower our people and more importantly, support the cash crops that are found in these areas to employ our people. These two crops face a very serious challenge. As has been the case for a very long time, Kenyan tea is sold in bulk and it is not branded. Therefore, if you go to Europe, Asia and all these other countries, you will never see tea that is made in Kenya. It is used to blend other lower quality teas from Malaysia, Pakistan and all these other countries and you will find it in the Western countries under all these other brand names. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Member has indicated our tea as being of the highest quality, if you go to the Western countries and you want to have a taste of this very high quality tea, you will never see it. It has been blended and called other names. Therefore, our biggest challenge should be to get our Kenyan tea as Kenyan tea in coffee and tea shops out there, so that we can maximize. Today, tea from Rwanda, Burundi and a bit of Tanzania, for example, which is of very low quality, once it is blended with Kenyan tea, it lowers the Kenyan brand. We must add value to our tea and make sure that it is sold as Kenyan tea out there and that people know and appreciate the value of Kenyan tea. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, it has also been mentioned here that the area under cultivation of tea currently is under a major threat from alternative investments, including real estate investment. The area between Nairobi and where you would want to call “Runda”, and Kiambu in general, was a coffee growing area. Given the estates that are coming up in that area today, before long, Kiambu and Nairobi will be one. All that area will be residential estates. A long time ago, we used to have a law that would not allow anyone to uproot coffee. What investors do to beat that law today is that they do not uproot the coffee trees but just cut them at the stumps. I am sorry that we have not been able to enforce this law. More importantly, although we may not be able to stop the development that is going on, because we want to support the real estate sector, there are many other areas which are currently not under cultivation, where we could also grow tea and coffee. However, what is happening is that we put under real estate, say, 40,000 acres that are under coffee and tea and do not replace the same with land in other areas. So, it may be important on our part to look at other areas where we could have plantations, so that we can replace the areas under coffee and tea that have been taken up by real estate. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, while on this matter, allow me to say that we have also had a major challenge because many of our farmers in the rural areas are not well trained on how to manage their finances. Therefore, after a whole year of working hard and, finally the bonus comes, most of our good old men disappear to the shopping centres in the company of girls from other places. The result is that we are going to lose a good number of our farmers because of HIV/AIDS and related challenges. We must enhance our awareness campaigns, so that when the tea bonus comes, it does not become a curse to families. As it is now, once the tea bonus is paid to farmers, if you go to Kericho, you will find that all the men have left their farms and are busy in the small towns. They go back to the farms when the bonus money is over. For this reason, they cannot educate their children or improve their crops. Therefore, the bonus money, which is meant to improve their crop actually, ends up becoming more of a curse to the family rather than a blessing. So, we need to increase our awareness campaigns. As much as we may not want to arrest the girls who go there, I think we should really encourage our people to ensure that we move on. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, an impression has also been created in this House, that all our tea factories and, maybe, also coffee factories, are struggling under the heavy weight of debts. This is not correct. We have some very good tea factories that have huge surpluses. We have tea factories that are owned by M/s Finley, for example, in Kericho. Those factories are doing extremely well. They have surpluses. They pay dividends. There are tea factories with shares trading in the Nairobi Stock Exchange such as Sasini Tea. They are doing very well. Therefore, if the hon. Member intends to imply that the Government goes to Sasini Tea, which is a tea factory, and which is also in the Nairobi Stock Exchange, and waives the debt of Sasini Tea, this would not be in the spirit of liberalisation; although they process tea, they are private company. So, for what reason would the Government come in to give money to a private entity, owned by the public? This will not be in the spirit of liberalisation. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, what we probably need to do is what the Government did a few years back, when it had the STABEX funds. They were used specifically to help tea and coffee farmers. Due to fluctuation of tea and coffee prices at the international market, at one time you would find that prices would be very good. When the US Dollar rate would go haywire, again, the prices would come down. So, there is a need to come up with a fund that would ensure that farmers have constant income that would enable them to service their loans. These are structures we can put in place. However, to recommend that we have a universal waiver of all debts for all companies, be it Finley Tea or Sasini Tea or any other privately-owned coffee estates, may not be in the interest of the country. It may also be unfair to other companies that are operating within the same sector. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, lastly, allow me to say that for a long time, tea and coffee have been amongst the major earners of foreign exchange in this country. Due to the decline in the production of these two crops, we have seen that our currency has been under threat from hard currencies. Therefore, if we want to have our currency stabilise without the intervention of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international organisations, we must support the production of cash crops as it will ensure that we have a constant flow of the hard currencies from out there. It is unfortunate that most of the other cash crops that we used to have, including pyrethrum and sisal are on their deathbed as we speak today. This explains why our shilling has been under constant threat. We used to provide 80 per cent of the world’s pyrethrum but currently, as we speak, Rwanda, which started just about four years ago, has already overtaken us. All the experts that we had here have already been taken up by those small countries. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to ensure that we add value to our crops; ensure that it is sold here and also ensure that as we send money out there, the farmers also benefit."
}