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"speaker_name": "Mr. Koech",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Bill. Allow me to sincerely thank the Minister for introducing this Bill on the Floor of the House. If there is something that needs reforms this moment, it is the amendment of the Tea Act to ensure that we protect the farmer and all that it takes with the tea. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, being aware that tea is the second foreign exchange earner in our country, and further aware that this country has the highest potential of many, many farmers growing tea, we must all agree that the Tea Act needs to be amended. We must ask ourselves one question: Why are we seeking for these amendments? We must seek for amendments and have a Bill that is going to promote tea production and ensure that the areas without tea were able to expand and encourage the farmers to grow tea in those areas. In my constituency, we have the highest potential of actually the farmers growing tea but very, very few grow tea. Therefore, we must ask ourselves why they are not growing tea today. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Bill must also address the issue of ensuring the protection of the areas that are growing tea already and that farmers do not get frustrated and start uprooting tea. It is on record that last year, some farmers in parts of this country tried to uproot the tea. We must address issues that surround that. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Bill must address the protection of the farmer. So it must seek to protect the farmer at all cost from exploitation and in particular, we must be more concerned about the small-scale farmer. So the question we must ask ourselves today is: Does this Bill address these issues? As we debate this Bill, we must ask ourselves what frustrations the farmers are facing today. One of them is the voice. As we move forward as a country, or as a Government and the leadership, we must try to listen to all the voices as much as possible. So, is the voice of the farmer taken care of or is it felt from bottom up? I want to draw the attention of the Minister to the representation in the board. As proposed in this Bill, there will be two persons nominated by factory organizations to represent small-holders of the tea producers. In the Act that we have today and which we are seeking to amend, it actually states that there will be six persons nominated to represent the small-holders instead of the two proposed by this Bill. I would really have expected the Minister to increase the voice of the small-scale farmer by maybe two to make it eight. That is an issue that seriously needs to be addressed. The other issue is that of brokers. What is almost killing the farming industry in this country is the issue of brokers. As we speak, in many parts of this country, many farmers are frustrated, because we are not able to absorb the maize that they grow and in many instances, we buy the same maize from them at a throwaway price while we import at very high prices. The reason for this is the importers, who in this case I want to term as brokers. They have almost taken up the decision to do this. We must, therefore, ensure that we allow the farmer to sell his produce directly and not through brokers. This will protect him or her at all costs. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other major issue that arises is the production cost. Most farmers in this country do not grow tea because one, the roads are impassable. This Bill should seek to ensure that in those areas where tea is grown, money reverts back there to maintain the roads. In areas where tea is grown, as I speak today, there is a lot of road maintenance by factories courtesy of CESS. I want to draw the attention of the Minister to Article 13 where it is stated that an"
}