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{
    "id": 948460,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/948460/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 42,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "We, as a Committee, were grappling with the question which up to now remains unanswered. What do you do with an entity that for all the assets they have and market share they control, they got it when they were a parastatal? Now that it has become a private entity and the Government does not have a way of controlling its operations. Perhaps this is one of the private entities that controls the economies of more than a million homes in this country. How is it that the Government can fold its hands and say that there is very little it can do on the operations of a private entity? It was on that thinking that we invited the Attorney-General of this Republic. We asked him to advise Parliament and this House, specifically on what to do with that particular issue. Unfortunately, by the time of filing our Report, the Office of the Attorney-General, despite all our calls and effort, had not come back to us. To the Committee, that remains a mystery. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is worth noting that one of our recommendations is that the President forms a commission of inquiry to look into the operations of KTDA. First, it should carry out a forensic audit of what has happened and transpired in that agency for the last 18 years since it became a private entity. With it becoming a private entity, are farmers better placed than they were 18 years ago when this institution was a parastatal or they are worse off? These are questions that require thorough investigation because, at the end of the day, the country must know whether it was a proper decision of converting it into a private entity. Of course, there are people who will give all sorts of arguments to justify it. Some people when they appeared before us they told us that all the other sectors, for example, milk, sugar, cotton and pyrethrum in the country have collapsed. They told us that tea industry is, perhaps, the only surviving. They used that as a justification. That may be a good point, but it does not suffice the kind of questions that we are posing to them. They should tell us more about the money they are controlling. How do farmers benefit from the many investments that this particular entity gets involved in? Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is a particular question that we posed to them during their presentation before the Committee. Unfortunately, they were not able to answer. How is it that the money that they make from insurance brokerage firms, financial institutions 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."
}