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{
    "id": 978942,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/978942/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 148,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mathioya, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Peter Kimaru",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13427,
        "legal_name": "Peter Kimari Kihara",
        "slug": "peter-kimari-kihara-2"
    },
    "content": " Thank you Hon. Speaker for giving me this opportunity to also add my voice to this very critical Bill. At the outset, I support the creation of the Tea Board of Kenya which will mainly bring sanity and regulation to this very important industry. The tea sub-sector is one of the major foreign exchanger earners in this country. We have seen the suffering of our farmers in a very big way. In the last few years, our farmers’ earnings have continued to dwindle. There are problems even at the KTDA level and, perhaps, they would need to be addressed by a body that is more neutral, and one that will come up with a regulatory framework for the industry. Hon. Speaker, I remember earlier this year, His Excellency the President of this country did pronounce himself on what ails the tea sub-sector. I do not know whether the Ministry in charge of agriculture has done much. I think that is why we need a body like the Tea Board of Kenya that will look at what is ailing the tea sub-sector. The KTDA has continued to do many other things. It has not stuck to its core business. It has gone ahead to form other bodies, including lending companies and also got itself into insurance brokerage. All these issues have continued to take a lot of KTDA’s energy and I do not think farmers benefit much from the earnings from those other side businesses that it is engaged in. Nothing much has been said about that. We also know that there are many brokers in between who can also be managed. A requisite regulatory framework needs to be put in place and the Tea Board of Kenya charged with the responsibility of ensuring that our farmers get better earnings. Hon. Speaker, I picked a key issue from His Excellency the President when he did a comparison between Kenya and Sri-Lanka. Sri-Lanka also produces tea, but slightly under half of what Kenya produces and yet, its earnings are much more than those of Kenya. They do value addition on only 50 per cent of their tea. We must encourage our tea factories to do value addition. The Tea Board of Kenya will be looking for other markets so that Kenya stops depending on the predominant markets only. Our predominant markets, that is, Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan and Britain seem to be failing us. The many cartels here have formed bodies even outside the country and some even keep tea in godowns in Mombasa. They buy when the prices are low and later on sell when the prices outside are high. Therefore, this is an area that needs regulation by a new body that is independent of the other actors. Such a body will come in handy to look at the prices so that farmers are the final beneficiaries. One of the key issues that I will be looking to see the Board do is automation. I am talking about automation of even the auction process. Let the buyers in the world market know that they can buy our tea through the automated system. In many countries, automation has been adopted. We buy cars from Japan through automated systems. You really do not need to know the seller on the other side. The same thing can happen here and I think it will enable us bring the prices back to where they were. So, I support. During the Third Reading, we will look into issues about the board which should ensure that Kenyan tea gets to the market at the right price. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}