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{
    "id": 843290,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/843290/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 265,
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    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I come from a tea growing county of Nyamira and so is my neighbor, Kisii County. I have no doubt that this Committee is one of the most important and critical Ad Hoc Committees we have formed in the second tenure as Senators. The tea industry supports about five million Kenyan families. This country earns over Kshs100 billion in terms of exports from the tealeaves that are supplied by both small-scale and large-scale farmers. Therefore, there is no doubt that tea is a very important crop in the economy of this country. However, there are a number of challenges that are facing the tea industry. That is why I have no doubt in my mind that 60 days may not have been sufficient for this Ad Hoc Committee to address all the issues and challenges that are facing the tea industry. Madam Temporary Speaker, in this era and age, you will be shocked to learn that there are regions in this country where the tea leaf collection from the tea buying centres takes over 24 hours because of the poor road network. I hope that when we extend time for this Ad Hoc Committee, it is going to address the issue of infrastructure development in the tea growing areas. There is no reason why a farmer who is struggling to pick his tea from morning to lunch time should wait for the tea to be collected from the tea collection centres for the whole afternoon and night only for the Kenya Tea Development Agency(KTDA) to collect the tea leaves in the morning. It is not right and we are not being fair to our farmers. We need to find innovative and proper ways of collecting our tea leaves from the centres to the factories. At most, if the tea leaves are delivered by 1.00 o’clock, the lorries that collect these leaves should be there in the next two to three hours. I hope that Members of this Committee will address all these challenges that are facing especially small-scale farmers. This is because the multi-nationals; the companies in the big tea estates, have no challenges. Their road network is in place, the factories are situated next to their farms, but it is the small scale-farmer who is facing the challenge. Madam Temporary Speaker, whereas in some jurisdictions like Sri Lanka, the price of tea keeps growing year in, year out, in Kenya, it keeps on shrinking yet we are having the same market. We need to know the reason. If Sri Lanka is exporting tea to Egypt or UK, we also do the same. We therefore, need to assist the farmer to have good value for the produce that they give to our tea factories, since we need to change the livelihood of our people. In some jurisdictions such as Australia, farming is like a white collar job. There, farmers earn good money from their crops, but in this country, everybody is running away from farming. How as a country are we going to attain food security if we are not providing good incentive to our farmers? This Committee should come up with solutions so that we remove all manner of obstacles. There was a time when farmers in this country were threatening to uproot their tea bushes and we do not want to go back there. I agree fully with what my friend, the Senator for Kericho County, has said about issues of pricing. As we speak, the factories are declaring what they call the second phase of bonuses to farmers. In my County of Nyamira, my tea factory Nyansiongo, the other day, I think on Tuesday, declared Kshs31 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."
}