Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 948463,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/948463/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 45,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13219,
        "legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
        "slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I rise to second this very important Report. I am one of the Kenyans - just like my neighbour - who comes from the tea growing County of Nyamira. This report is being tabled at a time when farmers have serious grievances around the tea industry. This weekend, I was at home and farmers were threatening that they want to uproot their tea bushes because they are not getting income that justifies the effort and labour they put in the farming of tea. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is a very key crop in this country. Tea contributes up to four per cent of our GDP. About 650,000 Kenyans directly depend on tea. Over four million households in this country depend on it. If it was not for tea farming I could not have gone to school. My parents were farmers. They relied on the income from tea to be able to pay school fees for us. Therefore, when we see farmers crying and saying that they are not able to predict whether they will be able to pay fees for their children, we must do something as leaders. I do not see the wisdom in trying to make the tea agency to be part of a parastatal in AFA while tea is an industry that can be self-sustaining. The kind of taxes that tea contributes to this country should enable the Government to allow tea to stand alone. I fully support the recommendations in this Report that we should remove tea from AFA and have a board that has the representatives of farmers in place, so that they can assist in marketing tea. We want to see good returns to farmers."
}