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{
"id": 884038,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/884038/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13219,
"legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
"slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
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"content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, one of the problems that have been recurring year in, year out, is the disparity in prices. Some farmers who grow tea around Mt. Kenya region earn bonuses which are double what the farmers in the Rift Valley, including my County of Nyamira, earn. When the bonuses are declared each year, you will find that farmers in Nyamira will be paid a tea bonus of, for example, Kshs20 per kilogramme. But tea farmers in counties like Murang’a or Nyeri, will attract a bonus of Kshs40 per kilogramme. This is demoralizing. Year in, year out these farmers keep on asking: “What is the difference between the tea that is grown in Kericho or Nyamira and the one that is grown in Murang’a and Nyeri?” There is no way these challenges will be brought to the attention of this agency, if we leave the small-scale farmers out of this board. Madam Temporary Speaker, I fully support the suggestion by Sen. Murkomen that we should introduce the issue of research. The Government established a body called Tea Research Foundation of Kenya (TRFK) and the reason behind it was to ensure that they do research around tea production and pick the high yielding tea varieties. For example, if the high yielding variety is grown in Murang’a County, they can do research on that particular variety and it can be shared with other counties like Nyamira or Kericho. This will ensure that we have a variety that gives good returns that is more or less the same for all farmers in this country. Tea auction that goes out of the country is done in Mombasa whether you are a farmer of Murang’a or Kericho. So, we want to see benefits accruing to farmers from both regions of this country. I, therefore, persuade my good friend, Sen. Cheruiyot, to consider introducing the issue of research in tea because we are now in an era where we have tissue culture. Even in banana farming, we now have varieties that mature early and give high returns. That is something that we should consider introducing for the tea industry. Madam Temporary Speaker, there is something that is interesting. Remember we are dealing with farmers, but if you read the qualifications of people who should sit in the board, under Clause 6, it says that they should at least have a university degree. I do not know what the experience is from my neighbouring county of Kericho, but if you go to my county of Nyamira, the best tea farmers never went up to university level. You are putting a qualification of a degree here; you will be picking people who have very good papers but they will have very little understanding about tea farming. The people who run millions of shillings under the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) have a minimum qualification of D-plus, yet we entrust them with more than Kshs100 millions in our NG-CDF. If we put a qualification that may be says; somebody who has secondary school education, that will take care of the farmer that we need in this Board. If we put a degree as a minimum qualification, I am yet to see in my county of Nyamira, a farmer with a degree, who has accepted that the best occupation is to engage in tea farming. Therefore, I want to persuade my good friend, the mover of this Bill – Sen. Cheruiyot, to be a bit flexible on the qualifications. Perhaps, we can say the chairman can be somebody with a minimum qualification of a degree academically. However, to take care of the interests of the farmer, secondary school education will be sufficient. Madam Temporary Speaker, another issue is with regard to the functions. I want us to look at a way that we make it as one of the functions – the way support can be 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."
}