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{
    "id": 775310,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/775310/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 260,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": " Madam Temporary Speaker, this Bill on warehousing is a good idea crafted badly. Warehousing is a very important component of commodity exchange, commodity trading and support for farmers and other people. However, from the way this Bill is drafted, it is not very clear how it is going to help the farmer or the small business people. What happens in comparable jurisdictions is that if you get a big commodity exchange market as big as Chwele Market in Bungoma or Karatina in Nyeri, you warehouse things for traders. They pay for the services and you also help them to market them. The Bill is generally talking about warehousing and creating a structure that is going to be a parastatal. We are moving away from this parastatal business. We are just creating new layers of public expenditure that are not helpful. Be that as it may, I hope the Mover of the Bill will bring appropriate amendments for us to deal with this. The commodities that are supposed to be warehoused after the passage of this Bill are matters devolved. They are produce such as cereal maize, rice, bananas, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes and so on. The council being set up is so heavy at the top and so lean at the devolved representation. The council consists of a Permanent Secretary for Agriculture and Finance, one nominee of the Council of Governors, Director-General of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries Authority at the national level, a person nominated by the Financial Sectors Regulators Forum, one person nominated by Kenya Farmers Association which is neither here nor there. There is also someone from East African Grain Council which is also neither here nor there. We also have someone from Consumer Federation of Kenya which is a Non-Governmental Organisation that works with the Government and so on. At Clause 3(4), there is not any description of educational standards for the people who will sit on this council. It just says that persons who have:- ‘relevant experience, expertise, qualification and experience in the agricultural sector and any other relevant sector’. My milkman for the last 20 years qualifies to sit on this council despite the fact that he probably does not have the appropriate skills to read, write and analyse any documentation that comes before him. To the very least, we know that some of our good farmers are not very well educated. We should give some level of education even if it is form four. We do not want to create structures where people come in as voting machines where they are hurried by the Chief Executive Officer and the Chairperson to earn their 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"
}