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"id": 799771,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
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"id": 440,
"legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
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"content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, first of all, I thank the Senator for Uasin Gishu, Sen. (Prof.) Kamar, for making this very important statement. I am in full support of what she has said. There is a problem in the North Rift as we speak. Most of us are maize farmers. The former Minority Leader and Sen. Cherargei are maize farmers too. Most of us who come from Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu, Elgeyo-Marakwet, Bungoma and to a good extent, Nakuru County, depend on maize farming. Other counties have different crops but maize is very important for our region. Secondly, countries all over the world, Europe and the United States of America (USA) included, offer subsidies to their farmers because of the important factor of food security. In fact, under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), one of the exceptions to the Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) principle in so far as tariffs are concerned, is that countries are allowed, including in the subsidies and countervailing measures agreement, to subsidize goods for purpose of achieving national food security. For that reason, NCPB has been mandated to buy maize from farmers, distribute fertilizer at a subsidized price and give maize farmers a standard price for their maize; in this case Kshs3,200. It is important for people to know that when you are subsidizing for farmers, in Europe and the US for example, the aim is to keep certain people in farming so that they can continue producing for national security. In places like Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia and some parts of Bungoma, you need to maintain large scale farmers; those who have 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 acres to continue producing wheat and maize for purpose of national security. Some of these farmers were quick to deliver their produce to NCPB. Some of them, like one of the farmers we were together over the weekend, were entitled to be paid up to Kshs200 million. As the people of the North Rift, we feel sad when those farmers who were sacrificing to feed the nation are called cartels. That does not mean that we condone other cartels and business people who have imported goods from other countries. We do not want to mention any country because of good neighbourliness. We are not allowed under our subsidy programme to subsidize goods from another country. As leaders from the North Rift, we do not want to see an indiscriminate list, which is now in the public domain, that condemns all farmers. These are farmers that we 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."
}