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{
    "id": 980717,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/980717/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 328,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Godfrey Osotsi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13172,
        "legal_name": "Godfrey Osotsi",
        "slug": "godfrey-osotsi"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am also concerned about the AFA arrangement. This House came up with the AFA Act and subsequently came up with the Crops Act. However, the AFA Act has not helped this country. Centralised management of crops was geared towards promoting efficiency, but it has led to more inefficiency, confusion and corruption. It is high time this House took the initiative of repealing the entire Act, so that we can go back to where we were initially. For example, the sugar industry is completely dead. We used to have the Sugar Bill and the Kenya Sugar Board, but now we have AFA. It is not possible. The Sugar Development Levy was abolished. It is not able to finance operations in the sugar industry. Now, it is tea and coffee. So, something needs so to be done urgently. I wish the leadership of the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock was in this House, so that they can take the views of the Members seriously. It is high time we amended our Standing Orders, so that the leadership of a committee is in the House whenever we are discussing a Bill affecting a committee. Issues are being raised by Members and I cannot see the Chairman of the Committee here or the Vice-Chairperson. Most of the Members of that Committee are not here. We should not be discussing these things in vain. We want action to be taken. The second issue is on the KTDA. I agree with the Members that KTDA, as currently constituted, is a problem in this sector. Something has to be done. The office of the CEO of KTDA should not be of permanent occupancy. It should be contractual, with very clear performance targets to be met. As it is, it is a permanent position. Secondly, the Company Secretary for the KTDA is also the Company Secretary of all the tea factories that KTDA is managing. That is wrong. This is a clear conflict of interest that needs to be looked at. The directors of the KTDA are also directors of subsidiaries. That is wrong. We must do something, as a House. Whoever converted KTDA to be a private company did a disservice to this country. We want KTDA to return to the hands of Kenyans and not be run as a private company. We also have to look at other issues in the sector. The cost of production is very high. The cost of electricity, labour and wood fuel is too high. We remember some time back, this Government promised that they were going to give all tea factories the Export Processing Zones (EPZ) status, so that they could enjoy lower tariffs of electricity. That has not happened for some tea factories. So, something has to be done. I am also concerned about the 2.5 per cent management fee that KTDA charges factories. It is too much. What does it do? A small factory like Mudete, with very low returns and income, has to pay 2.5 per cent as management fee to the KTDA, so that the directors can enjoy higher salaries and allowances as the farmer is suffering. The other thing is that there are a lot of reports that have been produced by taskforces on tea. Most of them have not been implemented. What is the problem? This is one area that the Committee should look into. Most importantly, I think the Government of Kenya has to be creative in terms of marketing tea. We all know that international prices of tea are going down because we have a surplus of tea in the global market. So, the prices will go down. We are the third largest producer of tea and it is said that the four largest producers of tea constitute 60 per cent of the world tea. Why can they not set up an equivalent of Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), so that they can regulate the amount of tea in the international market and, therefore, have better prices for the farmers? So, something has to be done strategically at the global level, so that our farmers can benefit. Our techniques of processing tea are a bit outdated. They say if we used modern techniques to produce tea, our farmers would fetch five times what they are fetching and they would enjoy better rates. 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."
}