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{
    "id": 774397,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/774397/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 244,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "February 21, 2018 SENATE DEBATES 42 Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Senator is my neighbour and I am sure he heard that I was speaking about some of the problems that we have in warehousing. Will this extend to items like tea? One of the problems we have discussed with my friend is that the tea industry is very tight because of the auctioning system in Mombasa. The only option a poor tea farmer in Kisii, Kericho, Nandi and other places has is to get their tea all the way to Mombasa through their Kenya Tea Development Agency factories. If we are going to this level of liberalisation, how does the tea farmer also benefit from this Warehousing Receipt System so that he is not told by the tea directors that the poor price was occasioned by transport costs from one level to another? I believe this Warehousing Receipts System will help to bring the services closer to the people. At the moment, county governments are spending a lot of money in creating storage facilities in markets for grading their products. Will this council support this market system within every county and ward, to help the farmers to get their products closer and closer to the warehousing? My experience in the past is when this kind of legal framework is put in place, the warehousing will be done in Mombasa, Nairobi and there will be nobody interested in warehousing in Kisii town or Keroka town. The poor farmer will depend upon the good will of the so called middle men who come and say; ‘look, I have a warehouse in Mombasa but this is what it will cost you’. Let us hope that the Committee Stage will examine the processes and the distances that farmers have got to travel to deposit their products in these warehousing systems. It is a very important system that has got good intentions, but how well does it serve the farmer? Is it in close proximity to where the farmer grows his product or will somebody come and say, “there is a better warehousing system but it will cost you so much?” When you look at the end benefits, it erodes all the benefits that the farmer would have expected to accrue from his products. We need to examine all these little points which mater in how a farmer is being treated in this system. Another area I want to get into is the fee structure. What will the fee structure of this warehousing system be? We may send people to this system and then they have the lee way to impose a fee that is out of reach for the people it intends to serve. As law makers, we must examine the process it goes through and the costs involved. Obviously, there will be a cost to it, but to what extend is this cost being mitigated against the interest of the farmer? This is an important point that we must look at. Yes, we can pass this as a good Bill that benefits the farmer as the Senate, but at what cost? This is an area that we need to get in to. On the issue of inspectors, there are inspectors who go there for different purposes, especially to distort the market prices. They will tell you that your product is of low quality and hence they cannot accept it in the market. At this level, let us avoid frustrating the farmer. A farmer will come with his produce, excited that a warehousing and legal system is in place. But when they get there they will be told, “Sorry, your product is of low quality and, therefore, we cannot accept it in this warehouse.” So, farmers will be at the mercy of this warehousing system and we should be very careful when we will be dealing with this Bill at the Committee Stage. All these 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."
}