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{
    "id": 980682,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/980682/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 293,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. George Gitonga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13491,
        "legal_name": "George Gitonga Murugara",
        "slug": "george-gitonga-murugara"
    },
    "content": "The Tea Board of Kenya which is established under Clause 3 is good enough although I would urge that it acts more independently than we are trying to provide here. Let us have some of the qualified members of this board elected instead of being appointed. The qualifications must be defined in the Act, so that those who are qualified can sit in the board and dispense business relating to tea. There are amendments which we have been told about and I believe we need to amend many of these clauses. These include the clause dealing with disputes which says that the board has the responsibility of settling all disputes arising between parties. Where any party is aggrieved, with a resolution of that dispute by the Tea Board of Kenya, it has a right of appeal to a court of competent jurisdiction. Unfortunately, the court of competent jurisdiction is not defined. Not all courts can hear such matters. Therefore, there is need to amend this clause and provide a clear definition of “a court of competent jurisdiction”. It is also important to make a point on the State Corporations Act. Previously, we had a problem of too many parastatals. Parastatals are governed by the State Corporations Act. What we did, in an attempt to solve the problem, was to amalgamate the parastatals into one. This is the problem we have today that we must address. Finally, it is also important to speak on behalf of all the crops because the Government is advocating stabilisation of prices of agricultural crops. In essence, let farmers get the worth of the value of their crops. I can assure you that growing these crops, whether tea, coffee, green grams in Tharaka, sorghum or millet, is extremely expensive. The inputs and labour are expensive. As a result, when we go to the market, we run at an absolute loss. Therefore, it is right for the Government to try and stabilise this through guaranteed minimum returns. These are the basic minimums in respect of each of these crops including cereals. This is so that when farmers go to the market, they are sure the prices will be slightly better than the input incurred. Therefore, when the Government tries to stabilise prices for tea, coffee, sugar-cane, rice and others, I make a humble prayer, through this House, to the Ministry of Agriculture, to look at all the other crops like cereals and other crops grown in arid and semi-arid areas, so that their prices are also stabilised. This will encourage farmers to grow these crops. Otherwise, the net effect of this will be killing some of our crops in the country. It looks very strange to talk about cotton. We used to have the Cotton Development Authority (CDA) taking care of a crop that was grown in semi-arid areas. However, with lack of policy, incentives and any support from the Ministry and the Government, cotton production is dead in the country. We have now resorted to wearing"
}