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{
    "id": 548195,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/548195/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 175,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "our past misdeeds are catching up with us in terms of not investing effectively in agriculture to make the cost of production competitive internationally for export. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the history of tea is that it was a success in the 1960s and 1970s when the Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA) was at its ascendance. Indeed, the KTDA has been a global example of how small-hold agriculture can exist side by side with large scale commercial farming with both sides benefitting from the management to such an economy. It is no wonder that people are waking up in Bomet to realise that communal land was taken away by multinational corporations some time ago. When the KTDA was successful, those kinds of sentiments were not there. The sentiments are an expression of the kind of crisis we have in agriculture. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the sugar industry is even worse. We who come from sugarcane growing counties know that where people grow sugarcane, there is a high level of poverty in the counties. Mumias Sugar Company was previously successful. If you go to Mumias, you will find that people are much poorer than they were in the 1960s. It is important, as we debate this petition and look at it, for this Senate to realise that the Constitution gives us the responsibility to look after the affairs and interests of counties. One of the interests of counties is agricultural production. Let us know that we have a crisis on our hands in the counties; that counties have taken up agriculture at a most difficult time. For example, what will we do with the factories and industries in agriculture when land is under the counties, but the industries are no longer economical? For counties to take over the industries, they need substantial capital to make them run economically. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is a debate that this Senate must engage in. I propose that we need a meeting between this Senate and the Privatization Commission. This is because what the hon. Member is talking about in Bomet regarding the relationship between the small-scale tea holders and multinational corporations that own the large scale farms in the private sector---. Nonetheless, it is the private sector which should look very carefully into its relationship with the small-scale holders. The perception of small- scale holders, as far as they are concerned, is that the multinational corporations are in cohort with the State. For the small-scale holders, the farms should be privatised as far as they are concerned so that they are participants in the wealth bearing. However, that is another different version of privatisation from the perspective of small-scale holders. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I will propose that while we debate this Petition---"
}