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Senators 'promise' to pass tea regulations

 

Imenti South MP Kathuri Murungi has appealed to senators to pass the tea reforms bill for the benefits of farmers.

Kathuri said he is optimistic after talking with several senators who promised they will support the bill.

“I was sure before we break for long holiday recess the reforms had the National Assembly approval. I thank the Speaker for allowing us extend time during the material day of debating the Bill. I was not blinking until 12:10am when I was sure the Bill had passed. It is now before the Senate and I am confident they will pass it. When it is passed, I will be the happiest person ever. We will come and hold a big party to celebrate because it will be a big boost to farmers,” Kathuri said in his constituency.

Governors had opposed the tea sector regulations saying they did not participate in the formulation of the reforms.

Munya castigated them saying they participated in public forums that discussed the reforms across the country, and wondered why they have all of a sudden distanced themselves from the regulations.

Munya has told the CoG and Kenya Tea Development Authority to, rather than oppose the regulations in public, they present their views to the relevant committee so as to enrich the bill.

At the same time, Kathuri urged people living upstream to stop illegal water abstraction and uproot eucalyptus trees to curb increasing conflicts due to lack of water downstream.

Kathuri said he has initiated a conservation project to plant Sh3 million bamboo trees this season and another 24,000 trees in April.

“Bamboo has good prices. It will be bought in kilos. Bamboo is 100 times valuable than eucalyptus. I will offer free bamboo to every farmer with eucalyptus,”  Kathuri said.

He said President Uhuru Kenyatta approved bamboo to be a cash crop and soon it will get a directorate with funds to buy the tree from farmers.

"Eucalyptus along the rivers is a big challenge, menace and threat in the upper zones. Farmers should get rid of these trees and adopt a more profitable and ecologically friendly bamboo. I thank Uhuru Kenyatta for declaring bamboo a scheduled crop just like tea, coffee, sugarcane, miraa, cotton, bananas," Kathuri said.

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