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{
"id": 979980,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/979980/?format=api",
"text_counter": 226,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nyeri Town, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Ngunjiri Wambugu",
"speaker": {
"id": 13460,
"legal_name": "Martin Deric Ngunjiri Wambugu",
"slug": "martin-deric-ngunjiri-wambugu"
},
"content": "somebody made an independent decision. Nobody told my dad to plant tea. He made that decision himself. He looked for the seedling, took care of them, moved them to the farm, and has taken care of them for over 12 years. He has never been supported by the Government. But the minute he harvests his tea, we start telling him what is going to happen to that tea. We tell him he cannot mill or crush his tea. He cannot do things to that tea that he has produced. Then, you compare that farmer with the person who decided to plant maize, cotton, pyrethrum or flowers. Same independent decision. But we, as the Government, are not interfering with his business. Why do we feel this overbearing need to get involved in the lives of certain farmers who farm coffee or tea? Why do we not liberalise the market to the benefit of the farmer? Let us stop talking about a sector. A sector does not exist if the farmer does not exist. Personally, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I support the Tea Bill because it is a Tea Bill. We need to change nearly everything else that is inside the Bill. We need to change how to form the Board, functions of the Board and how we incorporate. We need to move away from just thinking about an authority that thinks about how to invest money in itself. We should think about an authority that is thinking about how to put money in the pockets of the farmers in Nyeri or Kericho. If that is not what we are doing, as a House, we are failing the people who elected us here. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if we are going to talk about agriculture, the person we need to talk about is the person who wakes up in the morning, goes to the farm and takes care of that farm product. Everybody else depends on that person to make money. Those who sell tea in Mombasa, would not do so if farmers were not growing tea. The reason why I support this Bill is because it gives us an opportunity to have a conversation. Also, we do not have another Bill before us to compare with. So, I support this Bill because it allows us to have a discussion about how we treat tea and coffee farmers. The same problem we are seeing in tea, is the same problem you will find in coffee, milk and horticulture. Hon. Deputy Speaker, as we think about this Bill, let us create something that we can duplicate. There is no need of doing this thought process every time we have a problem with a farm product. If we can create a Bill that will put money in the hands and pockets of the tea farmers, I suspect the same process, Bill and thinking, is going to put money in the pockets of the sugar, dairy or beef farmers, for example. We need to expand our thinking as a House and not just get caught up in thinking about just this. The problem I am seeing is that we are thinking about a sector, rather than about a farmer. We are not thinking about the guy who actually makes this sector work. In fact, I have heard many of my colleagues talk about how much money tea makes for the country. It is a good thing. But then I ask myself how much of that money actually comes back to the farmer. How much get stuck in taxes? Do we need to think about the tax regime that we put on tea? Do we need to encourage, as my brother Gitonga has said, people to take a lot more tea in the country? The countries that have made money on their products do a lot of domestic consumption first. Do we need to stop thinking about producing tea for export and think about producing tea for sale locally? Do we need to allow the farmer to do whatever he wants to do with his tea the same way we need to allow the farmer to do whatever he needs to do with his coffee? I suggested that once but I was told: “No, we are going to reduce the value and the quality of our tea in international market.” I tell myself that we sell flowers. The reason the people who sell flowers have to manage the quality of their flowers is based on what the market demands. Why do we not allow the farmer to do the same thing? So, I reluctantly support the Bill with the intention of bringing amendments when it comes to the Committee Stage. 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."
}