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{
    "id": 774376,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/774376/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 223,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I rise to support this Bill unequivocally. This is because I was in the Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock in the last Parliament and we did a lot of work coming up with a Warehouse Receipts Bill. I recall that the Bill went through the National Assembly, it came to the Senate and when we were about to finalise its processing, we came to the end of the life of the House. So, I do understand that this is a Bill in which a lot of work had already been put, in the last Parliament. It is to the interest of not just the Senate, but the farmers of this Nation if we fast-tracked the implementation of the warehouse receipting system. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, about three weeks ago, I attended a stakeholders forum with Sen. Waqo; that is Waqo with a “q”. This forum was to talk about the establishment of a commodities exchange in Kenya. The stakeholders included players in the agricultural industry, the finance sector, and the international and local traders. They said that we cannot have a commodities exchange in Kenya if we do not have a clean legislative framework for warehouse receipts. There was a facilitator who had come in from India who shared with us experiences from India. They shared that they established a commodities exchange which went a long way in helping to stabilize prices. A commodities exchange helps in price discovery and fixing prices for various products. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you move around some of the counties where potatoes are produced, and I do recall the former Sen. for Nyandarua County, Sen. (Eng.) Muriuki, came up with a very nice Bill – the Potato Produce and Marketing Bill. I also recall that some dark forces somewhere decided that the Senate was so idle that it was only discussing potatoes, forgetting that the potatoes we were discussing were directly relevant to the needs of hundreds and thousands of farmers. However, the potatoes in Nyandarua County would fetch a different price from the potatoes in Nakuru County. We realised that in Nakuru County, especially going towards the Kuresoi side– I do not know whether that is the upper or the lower side – produces a lot of potatoes but there is a price difference. The potatoes from Nakuru County have something they call “ chomelea ”, which is an extra carriage that sometimes even has more than the actual gunny bag. Different prices, same product, same market. A commodities exchange helps in stabilizing prices for similar products in the same environment. 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."
}