Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 706265,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/706265/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 237,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "country which is famine free by just making sure that the storage is proper and there is a system which enables storage of agricultural commodities to take care of the tense in terms of demand and supply. In the Bible in the book of Exodus, a story is told of how one man who had gone there as a refugee called Joseph. Later on, he was put to prison and he eventually became the Prime Minister of that country. What promoted him from prison to the position of being the third in command in the country was his ability to design a food warehousing system for Egypt. They were able to predict that for seven years Egypt would have plenty of rain and plenty of food, but that would be followed by another seven years of drought. He said that if you have to save the country during the seven years of hardship, there must be a warehousing system to ensure that the food harvested in excess for the first seven years is stored and does not go bad. This is a modern day version of what I normally call the “Joseph Concept of Warehousing.” Thus solving farming by simply organizing the storage system. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this is an important Bill that will enable our farmers not to sell food at throw away prices. Where I come from in Tharaka-Nithi, there are seasons when there is a lot of production of grains and cereals like green grams, peas, beans and maize. However, most of that food goes bad as farmers watch helplessly. The storage system is not so good because farmers are not trained on how to regulate the moisture content. Therefore, even when they store it properly, the food ends up going bad and I am sure that is the problem in many other counties across the country. Secondly, because of lack of proper storage, farmers end up selling that crop at a price which doubles up within three months after farmers have sold all the produce. What happens then is that the famine that follows compels the same farmers that sold, for example, one kilogramme of green grams for Kshs50 to buy the same produce from brokers from up toKshs300 per kilogramme. So, this is an important Bill for our country, and I encourage Senators to support it. This is an important Bill for our country and I encourage Senators to support it because it provides for the registration, licensing and inspection of warehouses. It will help us know who is qualified to maintain a warehouse. This is because not everybody can store people’s commodities just the way we do not allow everybody to run a bank. The warehouse will do what the banks do with our money. It is only recently after the advent of county governments that we have seen county officials storing money in their homes because they do not want to take them to the banks.It is illegal to run a bank from your house or from a place that is not authorized or licensed to provide banking facilities. There will be a system of registering, licensing and periodically inspecting the warehouses. There will also be a Council that will be known as the Warehouse Receipt System Council. The Council will license those people who will receive agricultural commodities on behalf of farmers and keep them for the agreed period of time. In the meantime, the person who has submitted the goods can negotiate that receipt by transferring proprietary or ownership rights to a third person or they can also use it as collateral to get credit. Finally, both the public and private sector participation in warehousing is envisaged. This is because we have very few National Cereals and Produce Board stores in Kenya. This Bill is encouraging private investors to put up warehouses across the country. However, they must be registered and their premises must have been inspected 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"
}