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"content": "toil in their tea farms. However, at the end of the year, when these beautiful statistics are being read out, these farmers do not feature anywhere. Madam Temporary Speaker, when you are given these statistics, one of the things they will not tell you is how much has ended up in the pockets of the tea farmers. It is a known fact that at the end of the day at 5.00 p.m., when the ships are about to dock off, a kilogramme of tea fetches Ksh300. Out of that amount, what end ups in the pocket of the farmer is hardly Ksh60 or Ksh70 per kilogramme at most. What a disproportionate earning distribution! The fact that the person who tills the land, takes care of the plant, plucks the tea and delivers it to the factory gets only 10, 20 or 30 per cent of the earnings at most is appalling. The bulk of the money ends up in between the chain. Madam Temporary Speaker, I know that there have been questions as to why a Motion to create an ad-hoc Committee is being brought at this time. That is why I have taken time to look into parliamentary work that has been done with regards to tea legislation from way back in the Ninth Parliament, when there was some intervention in 2008. I realised that just before that Bill – that had been worked on by a Member of Parliament (MP) – was tabled, the same cartels that we are trying to chase out of this industry organised and ensured that the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries tabled a Government Bill. You will remember that under that dispensation back then, it was not possible for an individual or a private Member to sponsor another Bill if the government was already working on a Bill on a particular sector. There died the dream of that good gallant MP, who wanted to bring good legislation. Madam Temporary Speaker, I also looked at the works of this Senate. I remember that one afternoon during the last Parliament when the former Deputy Speaker and then Senator for Muranga, Hon. Kembi Gitura, moved and placed before this House a very generous report of investigations that had been done. It contained good statistics like the ones that have been placed before us here. Unfortunately, year after the other, earnings from tea do not reach the rightful owners. Therefore, I have sat down, spoken to each and every Member of the Senate who comes from tea growing counties and requested them to allow us to look into this issue. With utmost and tremendous respect, I want to thank Members of the Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. They also had their own concerns and they told me, ‘Senator, this happens to fall within our mandate’. I have spoken to them individually and shared with them very interesting challenges that they will run into, that I feel the only way this can be addressed is if we went the way of forming an ad-hoc Committee. It is my sincere hope that they will allow us the leverage to, within five months, come back before this House and produce legislation and interventions that will reverse this extremely bad trend. Madam Temporary Speaker, I remember vividly that back in the day in the County I represent in this House – and our neighbors know this too –the French multi- national company, Peugeot, used to have a show room where they would sell brand new vehicles. Every December when farmers were paid their tea dividends, they would walk into that showroom and drive out with brand new vehicles. However today, you cannot find a tea farmer who can afford such luxury. It is unfortunate that we have allowed it to 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."
}