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"id": 882430,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
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"legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
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"content": "research in terms of the viability of different clones of tea and advise farmers for a particular type of soil, this is the kind of tea clone that they are supposed to plant, so that they enjoy maximum yield. They would even do market survey as well and advise the country. Tea is a global business and given the things that are happening world over, you do not want to find yourselves exposed. When you have a good research arm, they should be able to inform you what to do. If Iran, which is one of our strongest tea market, close the door on us or give us sanctions as they have given in the last few days in terms of pricing, where else can we sell our tea? The unfortunate thing is that, you will get to read in the report that we will present before this House, and get to realize that after the amalgamation of different crops to form, under the armpit of one Government agencies, research was completely left behind. For the last five or six years, the only thing that the Tea Research Institute has been doing is to receive salaries from their Exchequer. There is absolutely nothing with regards to the work that they are supposed to do. As I said, we had the opportunity to listen to them. Madam Temporary Speaker, one of the cardinal principles of this Constitution 2010 is that it places the public right at the heart of decision making. For every public officer, including even State officers like us, many of our decisions if not all, are supposed to be in tune with the feelings of our people. This is because the public sovereignty belongs to the people of Kenya. We knew about these challenges because for many of us farming of tea is what we grew up doing either at subsistence level or assisting our parents. It was important that we visited different counties and listened to members of the public speak and share with us, as their leaders, their frustrations and challenges they have continued to face over the years. We visited Kisii, Bomet, Kericho, Murang’a, Embu, Meru, and Nyeri. We listened to different farmers whose dreams have been shattered. All they kept on reminding us is that if we do not find solution in the Senate, then they could as well uproot the tea and forget about it. Madam Temporary Speaker, this will be very catastrophic because tea is the leading foreign exchange earner, perhaps, only second in the last two or three years after Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) that is being sent by our sons and daughters who are doing business abroad. Therefore, if this industry is not properly looked into, we are staring at a major catastrophe as a country. We cannot continue to run the tea business as we are doing currently. Therefore, we listened to the farmers and the challenges that they shared with us. Madam Temporary Speaker, just for statistical purposes, the economies of at least 14 counties, out of 47, are directly dependent on tea as a business. If we allow in the next three or four years for things to be as they are right now, where we do not have farmers planting any new crop, it will not make sense. If you do not have a huge tract of land, it does not make sense to plant tea in your one or two acres. Fourteen counties are staring at an economic crash if we do not solve this issue. Madam Temporary Speaker, after several meetings, it was clear that the tea industry faces serious internal and external threats. It was at this point that the Committee was of the view that there was need to come up with a Bill to try and address all the The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}