Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 980552,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/980552/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 163,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tigania West, JP",
    "speaker_title": "John Mutunga",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13495,
        "legal_name": "John Kanyuithia Mutunga",
        "slug": "john-kanyuithia-mutunga"
    },
    "content": "should. Therefore, this particular Bill brings back the hope and the spirit that farmers will continue producing more tea and increasing the benefits in the value chain. As a member of the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock, Hon. Speaker, I would like to confirm that consultations took place. We visited Konoin Constituency as he has said. As we moved around the country, we familiarised ourselves with the processes and functions of the tea subsector in those particular areas. The Bill deals with advanced issues and contributions to the entire economy. Some of the missing provisions which cannot be avoided must lead to the amendment being made. The effectiveness of the Board itself has been looked into very carefully to make sure that even the provisions and penalties that have been proposed are punitive enough to prevent wrong doers from participating in the tea subsector. It has spelled out the minimum qualifications for some of the positions. This is important because, besides being advised by the executive, the leaders also need to ably interpret or process the advice. Hon. Speaker, stakeholders raised many issues and I would like to touch on a few issues in view of their importance. One of them is the management of the tea value chain, the management of the actors, the roles of the actors and the factors that play within the tea subsector itself. Also, the leadership placement in the tea formations such as the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) and other associations is an issue that was raised. Hon. Speaker, the stakeholders talked about taxes, levies and fees that the farmers pay, especially the 2.5 per cent management fee that is levied by the institution. They also talked about implementation of the taskforce reports. Many taskforces have been put in place and reports finalised, but they have not been effectively implemented. There is also the issue of diversification at the production level, value addition and the marketing. We only sell brown tea, which is not the only product that we can sell. We can also produce purple tea. Hon. Speaker, our prayer is that, as we debate this particular Bill, the issues that have been raised by the stakeholders need to be addressed so that we have a comprehensive Bill that will support the subsector. Finally, we should prepare to receive more of this kind of Bills that look at the different commodities that were initially on their own but were lumped up together under the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) Act, 2013. We will need to progressively address the issue of bringing forth the commodity Bills so that we deal with each commodity as it were. Hon. Speaker, we also need to review the Agriculture Act, 2013 which somehow supports the amalgamation of the different commodities. With those few remarks, I beg to second."
}