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{
    "id": 993810,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/993810/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 116,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13219,
        "legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
        "slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, this engagement by the leaders of Nyamira with the Cabinet Secretary, Agriculture, has culminated in some regulations that have been gazetted by the Ministry of Agriculture, where we are going to have a democratic process of picking the leaders of tea farmers. We are going to have a good marketing system for our tea and registration clerks in our tea collection centres. This will reduce the suffering that the farmers have been facing, where they have been waiting at tea buying centres for the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) to collect their tea for several hours. The point I am making is that Cabinet Secretaries are there to serve people. When you walk into the office of a Cabinet Secretary, you do not need to take tea and mandazi . You go to an office sustained by taxpayers to advocate and pursue policies that should be helpful to your people. In as much as we also want to use this forum, I want to emphasise that we should never create the impression that Cabinet Secretaries are not there to receive agitation and complaints from our people. Those are public offices and they must be open to all of us. Madam Temporary Speaker, over and above that, I also want to see our Government being innovative. Last November, we travelled with the Chair of the Committee on Health to the United States of America on an exchange programme on agriculture. I was impressed to see the way American people have embraced technology in farming. We went to a family farm in Virginia, which was being managed by a fourth generation from that family. All they have been doing for a living has been agriculture. Let us also encourage our people to embrace the idea that agriculture can be a good source of income. You do not need to look at white collar jobs. You have heard that there is a farmer in Karen. He had a choice of selling that land and turning it into real estate, like what has happened in Kiambu. All the former coffee farms are now housing estates. Runda used to be a coffee farm. However, he chose to be the largest milk supplier. The Government should be encouraging those engaged in farming to continue doing farming. In Nyamira, the average land per farmer is about 0.2 hectares, but we are amongst the largest producers of bananas in this country. Year in, year out, lorries drive from Kisii and Nyamira bringing bananas to Nairobi. We want to support the farmers in Uasin Gishu. We know that you are the largest producers of maize and food security is very important and key to this country. I hope the Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries that will be given the opportunity to consider the important issues raised by Sen. Cherargei will come up The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}