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{
"id": 978927,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/978927/?format=api",
"text_counter": 133,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Igembe Central, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kubai Iringo",
"speaker": {
"id": 1574,
"legal_name": "Cyprian Kubai Iringo",
"slug": "cyprian-kubai-iringo"
},
"content": "marketing problems, prices, fertilisers, labour and all those things bedevilling the industry. Therefore, with the formation of board which will run the activities of the tea industry, I strongly believe that it will do an overhaul and bring in a new face of this industry, where the farmer and the country will benefit and we shall rip apart the cartels which have been working in cahoots to rip off the poor farmer of his hard-earned labour. The production cost of tea is very high, especially given that it is human-labour intensive. The circumstances under which these farmers grow and harvest this crop are very harsh, especially in the cold areas. At the end of the day, whatever value that farmer gets is not commensurate with the labour which that particular farmer has put in. Therefore, this Board should go out of its way to look for proper markets where tea can get the best value. That is why the Board should also be incorporated in the marketing and auctioning of tea, so that they will be the eyes of the farmers wherever this tea goes for best prices. I suggest the Board should also put a fixed price for every kilogramme of tea, so that at the end of the month, if at all the prices are low and the prices go down, the Board should have a kitty through the Treasury or any other source, which should be incorporated in the Bill, and get some money which will cushion the farmer to get the real value of their tea. These days, farmers will struggle to harvest tea, sell it to their respective factories and at the end of the year what the farmer gets is what was sold by the Board. Either prices went down or cartels shared out the money because there are so many of them. If it is Ksh20 or Ksh30, that is what the farmer gets notwithstanding the inputs like fertiliser, harvesting labour, weeding labour and all that. Therefore, the Board should fix tea prices, so that if it is Ksh60 per kilogramme, it should be so. If at all sales are poor and the money is not enough, then the Board should go out of its way to get money to top up so that when a farmer sells his crop to a factory, he is assured of what he is supposed to get so that at least he can budget. Part IV on financial provisions appears to be a bit ambiguous. We need a specific fund whose source will be known, leave alone donations and grants and monies from other sources. We need a specific levy which will spell out the funds specifically for the Tea Board, so that when we talk of marketing or when we want to do some benchmarking on where to get better markets we do not wait for donors. We should have a specific levy which will be used to cater for these things. There are cartels which have been working towards poor tea prices. They should not be included on this Board. The Board should consist of people of integrity. They should do a total overhaul and bring in regulations which will keep those dirty hands away from the farmers’ money. The innocent farmer knows that once tea has been taken to the factory, they just sit and wait for their money, whereas there are those brokers who will burn the midnight oil to see how they can share the same money. Therefore, we need a total overhaul of the systems. We do not want to create a Board which will just wear the old shoes of the defunct corporations. The problem will still continue. We might put in new faces but the game will continue the same way. We need to do an overhaul or total change so that once we talk of a new board, it comes in with new projections and regulations that should benefit the common mwananchi and the farmer. With those few remarks, I support."
}