Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 948491,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/948491/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 73,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "Sen. Cheruiyot since you have been championing this, you can take it up to dismantle the Agriculture and Food Authority Act. We from the predominantly sugar areas are already drafting a new sugar Act to disaggregate ourselves from AFA and the confusion that portents in that organization. We asked them to account for the billions of money that was in Sugar Development Levy that cannot be found. I also want to advise my friend Sen. Cheruiyot, and those of you who come from tea plantation areas, you and your county governments are also playing reckless politics with plantations. For you to start saying that M/s James Finley, Brooke Bond must pack- up and go and give back our land, that is inconsistent with the philosophy of the 2010 Constitution which says land is a tool of production and not an instrument of ownership and possession. If you are looking for ownership and possession you can do what our friend in Nandi is doing - take a power saw and rampage through tea farms and create whatever you want to create. If your county, Sen. Cheruiyot, wants to maximize your income on tea, enter into proper agreements with the existing established productions. If you find that the lopsided agreement on cess payment, profit sharing and rent for the land - because the land belongs to the county - is inadequate, renegotiate. You do not set your house on fire because you have seen a snake in the roof; that is called stupidity. You do not demolish your house because you have seen a crack on the wall; that is lack of intelligence. Sit down with these people and negotiate with them. This also applies to Murang’a County. I have seen some ugly noises from there about Del Monte. If we are an economy like we are; we have allowed foreign investments and we cannot then turn around in the name of devolution, to start bastardizing them. What we need to do is to maximize income from these investments for the benefit of the people. Ask M/s Finley to pay Kshs2,000 per acre per annum instead of Kshs20. Those thousands of acres will give you better income. Ask to share in the tea profits. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I agree with Sen. Cheruiyot that you must dismantle a cartel in Mombasa called tea auctions. We have come of age for the tea factories whether in Nandi, Kakamega or Vihiga to be given the opportunity to be supported by the State to produce and market their tea under their brands. This will give you even better income. However, if you want to market as a country, there is no problem as long as you make sure that the farmer gets value for his money. The small scale farmers who produce the bulk of the tea must be supported. It is disheartening; three weeks ago, I met a lady in Eldoret who told me that all her life, she has been working on her father’s 15 acres tea plantation. The father has been paying her enough money to pay fees for all her children to go through university. Now, her father cannot afford to even pay her Kshs5,000 a month because the income has dwindled. Now she has moved to Eldoret Town at the age of 50 years where she is working for some local trader to make an income to take care of her family. That is the plight of the farmer. 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."
}