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{
    "id": 774380,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/774380/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 227,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "There will be risks with this kind of system. We are talking of a warehouse receipts that have been issued on, say, 1,000 tonnes of maize that you have deposited in the warehouse. We live in strange times indeed. What if a farmer came with a warehouse receipt that is 27years old and says that he deposited maize worth Kshs633 million 27 years ago and demands to be paid? How do you mitigate such risks? This is maize and not Treasury Bills or bonds. We are seeing people coming with claims worth Kshs600 million, which are 27 years old. How do we protect the Kenyan farmer from crafty fellows and people who are clever enough to manufacture papers? While protecting the farmers against those manufacturing papers, how do we protect the rights of those who have legitimate claims? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I raise this because there is a live issue, which I will not talk about much because it is in court, around issuance of negotiable instruments. However, this is a real possibility within the warehouse receipting and the agricultural space. We need to shield our farmers against that. Agriculture is devolved and policy remains at the center. I believe that the role of the Ministry and the national Government is to help craft policy that will enable county governments to execute and deliver agriculture as a service to the people that they represent. When I look at the council that has been proposed in this Bill, there is one nominee of the CoG. I have always had a problem. We always equate nomination of a person by the CoG to representation of the interests of counties. I do not know why we think that when CoG has got someone on a board, the interest of devolution has been taken care of. That is the reason Article 96 of the Constitution says that the Senate represents and defends the interests of counties and their governments. Sometimes the governors and counties have got different interests. We need to think through this because there will be a lot of boards, councils and committees that we will form. We will go for the lazy approach of saying that once the CoG has representation, the interests of the people in the counties have been taken care of. I do not have an answer to this, but there has to be a way of looking at it. The interests of governors are not necessarily the interests of the people in counties. There is more than one example that we can give where the interests of governors have been at variance with the interests of the people that they lead. I hope that as we process this Bill, we shall give some thinking to that. I also hope that we will allow counties that think they can come up with a much more efficient and advanced warehouse receipting systems within their respective jurisdictions to do so. We have seen it in the past on matters like distribution of fertiliser and animal feed. When it is done at the center, farmers get seed that is already spoilt or fertilizer that does not correspond to the soil requirements of that area. In the last Parliament, we saw the county government of Trans-Nzoia County say “no” to fertilizer and seed that came from the national Government. There was a standoff because the people on the ground were saying that they are the ones who understand the soil requirements. They were indicating what they wanted and the national Government was not providing that. We must have a provision that allows a county government to improve and develop a much more efficient warehouse receipting system, and to develop incentives for those who establish them and farmers. 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."
}