Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 948461,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/948461/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 43,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "like Green Feather, the energy generating companies, Chai Trading which is a warehousing and tea trading company benefit farmers? How do all these subsidiaries translate to useful gain to the farmers at the end of the day? Only a proper audit of the operations of this company during the last 18 years will be able to unravel the answers to all these questions. We must know whether the people we represent in this particular House have been taken advantage of or have received value for money out of this particular exercise. Mr. Speaker, Sir, another issue was that in 2012, a legislation brought before Parliament amalgamated all the various crop departments in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and converted them into AFA. We must be told whether this move has been good for the tea farmer or not. Unfortunately, the truth is that on this front, tea farmers have been ill-treated. It was a wrong move and ill advised. The question that many of us kept asking is that tea is the leading foreign income exchange earner in this country. Tourism comes second or third after tea, but it is being given a lot of attention. It has a Ministry headed by a Cabinet Secretary (CS), Permanent Secretary (PS) and several parastatals under it. I think tea industry deserves something better. You cannot take an industry that accounts for the livelihoods of close to 10 million Kenyans and treat it as small department in a big conglomeration of various departments. You cannot lump tea together with all these other crops. The truth of the matter is that we must give attention that is equivalent to the returns that come to this country. That is part of the proposal. Mr. Speaker, Sir, some of the proposals that are before this House have been passed by time because this report was done before we considered the Tea Bill that was brought before this House. This House agreed with many of our recommendations that we proposed in the Tea Bill. Therefore, some of these proposals here have been overtaken by events. The Tea Bill is currently before the National Assembly. I have information that it is in the Second Reading stage. In the next few days, if not weeks, they will be able to conclude it and address some of these challenges. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this comes at a very interesting time. I can see many of my colleagues who represent tea growing areas are in the House. They will tell you that the common discussion in every gathering from funerals to weddings to public barazas in those regions at the moment is what to do with this crop. I am sure in the last few days, you have seen people even uprooting this crop because they believe it no longer has value. They want we, as their leaders, to give guidance to this industry. Part of what we have proposed in that legislation that was actually informed by most of the work that went into this particular report, will be able to solve at least 70 per cent of the problems. This report is important in answering the question: What do you do with the billions that farmers have lost in the last few years? Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the last Parliament, a Statement was sought by the then Senator for Bomet, Sen. (Prof.) Lesan on what would happen to the savings of tea farmers deposited by KTDA in the collapsed banks like Imperial and Chase. This report wants tea farmers to know whether they would get justice and that their looted money will be repatriated back to the country so that they enjoy the sweat of their labour. 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."
}