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"id": 1566452,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": null,
"content": "extremely powerful officers because many of our people are organising themselves into cooperatives. Sen. Mungatana, we seek to pass this piece of legislation so as to ensure that those men and women have sufficient powers to ensure that even the young people that you are about to tell me to go and fundraise for, for example, in Tana River--- The minute they raise money, three or four officials should not meet and misappropriate those funds and disappear into thin air. We should regulate that space in a particular way that ensures that savings and earnings of members of a particular society or cooperative are guaranteed. That is part and parcel of things we are trying to do. We have even provided the space for county assembly legislations with regards to this particular Bill because we do this with the full realisation that there are two levels of Government. There is what the national Government can do and what county governments ought to do with regards to regulations of cooperatives and the kind of support they can channel to our cooperatives. Therefore, this Bill in its entirety seeks to amend Cap. 2A and to provide timelines for making regulations to ensure implementation of laws passed by Parliament- -- Just a minute because I referred to the wrong notes. This Bill seeks to provide a legal framework that promotes a sustainable and competitive cooperatives sector for socio-economic development in a devolved system of government. More specifically, this Bill seeks to provide for matters relating to promotion, registration and more importantly, regulation of cooperatives and to give life to Article 186 of the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution. Further, this Bill establishes the following offices: The office of the commissioner for cooperatives development at the national level and the office of the county director for cooperatives at the county government level and to provide for the intergovernmental co-operation at both levels. That is very important. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is not possible to regulate our Saccos from here in Nairobi. That is part of where the problem was because people in Nairobi would send a fellow from, I do not know which part of the country, to go and sit at the head office in Kakamega and expect that they will have the interests of a cooperative society deep in Malinya where Sen. Boni comes from. That fellow will never have interest because they do not care. They just wait for 30th to get their salary. If you have a son or daughter of the soil who knows that it is in their best interest for cooperatives in the county to succeed, they will move around. They understand the cultural dynamics and sensitivities of that particular part of the country. They know that you cannot arrange this and this and put together. They can even visit members and speak to them in a dialect that they understand on the importance of the cooperative movement. I like that departure of the realization. I like Bills such as this, that appreciate that there are two levels of Government; that, as much as we are one people, we are equally distinct; that there are certain things which if Sen. Boni Khalwale does, they will be okay in Kakamega County. However, if I was to do them in Kericho County, I will run into trouble and vice versa. That is who God made us to be. I appreciate when we pass laws that buy into that particular kind of arrangement."
},
{
"id": 1566453,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1566453/?format=api",
"text_counter": 206,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
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{
"id": 1566454,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1566454/?format=api",
"text_counter": 207,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, cooperatives play a fundamental role in the social economic development by harnessing the collective economic participation. They promote financial inclusion and support local enterprise, ensuring that local economy works, as I have explained. In Part I, which comprises of clauses one to five, these are ordinary provisions of a Bill, which is the title, objects and the guiding principles. Part II, which is clauses 6 to 18, contains the provisions for the establishment of those offices that I have mentioned - the national Government, county government offices and the Intergovernmental cooperative Relationship Technical Forum, for knowledge and skill transfer so that you can exchange notes with the cooperative officer, if in another life, when you and Sen. Cherarkey are no longer Senators in this House. You can be the director for cooperatives at your counties and exchange information about why your farmers---"
},
{
"id": 1566455,
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"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "(Laughter)"
},
{
"id": 1566456,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1566456/?format=api",
"text_counter": 209,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": null,
"content": "I do not know why you are laughing and imagining that it is a small job. This is a very important job, because you are in charge of thousands of farmers and their affairs. You will be able to tell Sen. Cherarkey why instead of building a huge building and calling it Creameries in Nandi, it will have made sense for them to first build a stronger cooperative movement such as the one that we see in Meru meeting yearly. After you have secured the raw materials, you would then put together a bigger building. Stones and walls do not grow economies, but people do. The bigger challenge for our counties is the obsession with brick and mortar, where you just want to put up a building. I said the same about the County Aggregated Industrial Parks (CAIPs) a few minutes ago. We are told that counties have put together a building of Kshs500 million, but have not taken time to ask them what is it that those counties will be selling. What will Nandi County be selling in its CAIP? What will Kericho be putting in the CAIP that is being built in Kapsorok? The same can be said of all our 47 county governments. Therefore, we must stop this obsession with brick and mortar and invest in people first. Supply the raw material. Let it be in abundance, then we can start struggling about how to collect and organize it in a better way, so that we are able to access markets within and without of the Republic. Part III of the Bill, which has clauses 19 to 27, gives provisions for the structure of cooperatives in Kenya. Members will take time to read and appreciate. Part IV, which is clauses 28 to 43, is provisions for registration of cooperatives, so that you ensure that when a cooperative is registered, there are transition provisions, so that somebody does not run away the way our colleague, and he is not here, Sen. Maanzo, disappeared with an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) certificate in 2007. That has happened in cooperatives many times, where the founder member disappears with a certificate and says, this was mine, yet they were doing it in trust. That process has been streamlined in Clause 28 of this particular Bill. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Part V includes clauses 44 to 50, which contain provisions on the rights and liabilities of members, that is, what members are able to do."
},
{
"id": 1566457,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1566457/?format=api",
"text_counter": 210,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1566458,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1566458/?format=api",
"text_counter": 211,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": null,
"content": "You and I are representatives of the farmers. We have the Kenya Tea Development Agency Holdings (KTDAs) factories in our counties. KTDAs are forms of cooperatives because it is the farmers who have come together, put up a factory and handed over management of that particular factory to a managing agent called KTDA. That is a form of a cooperative, as much as they are governed under the Companies Act. That is something that we were not able to resolve when we were passing the Tea (Amendment) Bill (Senate Bill No.1 of 2023) in this House. I hope that in this term of Parliament, we can provide clarity, because in my opinion, you should not subject anything that is owned by a multitude to the same set of laws as a company that is owned by either a sole proprietor or three or four individuals. These are companies that are owned by thousands of people. Therefore, I believe they should be governed by the cooperative Act, more than companies. That is why, a watchman can stop an innocent farmer in Nkubu from accessing the factory next door, yet that farmer is the owner of that factory through their contribution of the tea that they sell to that factory each year. We have provided for the rights and liabilities of members in our cooperatives in clauses 55 to 66. Clauses 67 and 68 provide for amalgamation and division of the various types of cooperatives that you have, outlining what is it that is a smaller cooperative and a larger one. We did not want to lump all of them together. A cooperative such as yours, the one that I have given as a perfect example, or Imarisha in Kericho County, that has tens of thousands of members cannot be governed by the same set of laws, for example, Kapsoit"
},
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"id": 1566459,
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"speaker": null,
"content": "Boda Boda"
},
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"id": 1566460,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1566460/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": null,
"content": ", the one I fundraised for a few days ago, that has a few hundred members. Therefore, we have provided for the classification of the various cooperatives that exist. Under Part XII is a provision for charges on cooperatives, inquiry, inspection and the special powers of the cooperative’s tribunal. We are setting up the cooperatives’ Tribunal. I hope these tribunals do not turn out to be toll stations where when members dispute and they are to form or lodge a complaint, it is the highest bidder that is listened to. It must be manned by men and women of great integrity who understand that they are dealing with ordinary citizens who may not have the force to do many of the things that are being looked at under this particular law. This is a very comprehensive piece of legislation. I hope that Members will take time to appreciate, read and give their comments, including on the Tribunal. With regards to the Tribunal, I would like to read Clause 131(2), that particular part to make this case. That- “Where the cooperatives Tribunal enters judgment in terms of award together with cost, it shall issue a decree which shall be enforceable as a decree of a tribunal” We are giving it powers and provision for what happens if you fail to attend a cooperative Tribunal. So, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to urge Members that we support this particular Bill. Share your thoughts. Sen. Osotsi, I know you are actively involved with the cooperatives in Vihiga County, including the boda boda one, which is one of the best performing in the country. Those gentlemen from your county were in my county when we were fundraising for the ones in Kapsoit, and they extended an invitation to me. They"
},
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}
]
}