When a hyena wants to eat its children, it accuses them of smelling like goats, goes an African proverb. At least that’s what went through my mind as I read through the Horticultural Crops Authority Bill 2024, that was tabled in Parliament last month.

First off, like its tax payer resource hungry cousin the Livestock Bill 2024, it seeks to create yet another parastatal called the Horticultural Crops Authority (HCA) with a full board, management and staff. So I moseyed on down the street and visited the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development website to see how in heaven’s name we had not solved for the crucial crisis of agricultural crop oversight in Kenya’s legal history. I found that an Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), had been created back in 2013.

The AFA is the former Horticultural Crops Directorate which was the former Horticultural Crops Development Authority established in 1967. According to its website, “the focus of the Directorate at inception was mainly the smallholder farmers who had the potential to utilize their own labour, as the production processes were labour intensive, with a view to getting high return for their limited land.” The AFA has a full compliance department that amongst other roles, administers and promotes the Horticulture Crops Regulation 2020 to the horticulture stakeholders to ensure compliance in production, processing, marketing, grading, storage, collection, transportation and traceability of scheduled crops. In addition, the department ensures the registration and licensing of industry players.

But let’s park the duplication of efforts aside here, after all I did mention that folks over at that ministry have a serious penchant for creating fiefdoms at the taxpayer’s expense. Why should you care about this Bill? Under section 4 of the Bill, it will apply to any horticultural produce grown, processed or marketed in Kenya and any farm whether privately or communally held. Under section 6 of the Bill, it states that the newly minted -plastic covers still on the just delivered leather swivel chairs – Horticultural Crops Authority will have the power to regulate growers and dealers of horticultural crops. The Bill then goes ahead to define, in excruciatingly detailed terms, which fruits, herbs and spices, vegetables, medicinal plants and flowers fall under its regulation. From avocadoes, bananas, plantains to mangoes, melons and pawpaws. From basil, thyme and rosemary to moringa, stinging nettle and amaranth. From cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli, to green maize, kale or sukuma wiki, spinach and tomatoes. All these, amongst many others, fall within the ambit of the HCA which, under Section 24, requires commercial growers of these crops to be registered, for free as an added bonus, with their respective county governments.

The drafters of the Bill mysteriously do not define who a commercial grower is, but they do state that a grower is a person who cultivates horticultural crops including a smallholder farmer. If you or your relatives are currently sweating the family land assets for crop production, you are likely to fall within this ambit, assuming that commercial growing means growing any of the above mentioned crops for sale. Another eye brow raising section 27 of the Bill requires a grower of horticultural produce shall use inputs from a registered source. Please note, it states a grower, not a commercial grower thereby casting the net over everyone who grows the crops therein described.

If you apply the same level of keenness as a mover of a deputy presidential impeachment motion being grilled on a hot Senate seat, you will note that the Bill does introduce the role of County Governments into the horticulture value chain, which I can imagine could have been done by amending the existing legal framework. But if they applied that efficiency, then there wouldn’t be an opportunity to issue licenses to exporters of horticultural produce and products, as well as importers and export processors of the same.

In summary, a read of the 42 pages of the HCA Bill leaves one to conclude that someone wants to monitor a lucrative fruit, vegetable, flower and herbs industry by ensuring every yet-to-be-defined commercial grower is registered “for free” whether they are large or small scale. What happens after “free registration” is where the goat likely meets the hyena. The same someone also wants to create a parallel licensing regime to that of the AFA, because the principal role of governments worldwide is to make doing business as difficult as possible for citizens trying to make an honest living.  And finally, the requirement for all growers to purchase inputs from registered sources makes one start to wonder why adopt a prescriptive approach to where hundreds of thousands of farmers buy their inputs?

 

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