Agriculture remains the backbone of Kenya’s economy, contributing substantially to the GD…
Motion text
THAT, aware that agriculture remains the backbone of Kenya’s economy, contributing substantially to the GDP, rural employment, and foreign exchange earnings, with key export crops such as coffee, tea, avocados, cut flowers, macadamia nuts, cashew nuts, and related horticultural produce collectively accounting for a significant share of the country’s total export value; further aware that these commodities are largely produced for the export market, positioning Kenya as a global leader in cut- flower exports, one of Africa’s largest producers and exporters of avocados and macadamia nuts, and a major supplier of tea and coffee; noting that the commencement of duty-free access to the Chinese market for these products effective May 2026 presents a historic opportunity to widely expand export earnings, create thousands of rural jobs, promote value addition, and strengthen the country’s position in global agricultural trade; concerned that the high cost of electricity in Kenya, as evidenced by commercial and industrial rates significantly exceeding those of regional competitors such as Ethiopia and Tanzania, continues to erode the competitiveness of export-oriented agriculture by inflating the costs of critical operations such as irrigation, cold-chain storage and logistics, processing, drying, grading, packaging, and other value-addition activities essential for meeting stringent international quality, food safety, and phytosanitary standards; cognisant that affordable and reliable power supply is a critical input for smallholder farmers, farmer cooperatives, aggregators, and agro-processors engaged in these export crops; further cognisant that the lack of targeted electricity subsidies has led to reduced profitability, discouraged investment in modern technologies such as solar-assisted irrigation and energy-efficient cold rooms, and increased vulnerability to global price volatility and climate shocks; acknowledging that whereas, the National Energy Policy 2025–2034 and the Policy Framework for Sustainable Financing and Subsidy Management in Agriculture provide a broad foundation for targeted interventions, no specific mechanism exist on subsidised electricity tariffs exclusively for export-oriented agricultural production, processing, and related infrastructure; now therefore, this House resolves that the Cabinet Secretary for Energy & Petroleum formulates a national policy on power subsidies for export-oriented agricultural production that provides for tiered electricity tariff subsidies including off-peak and time-of-use rates, exclusively for registered producers, cooperatives, processors and exporters of coffee, tea, avocados, cut flowers, macadamia nuts, cashew nuts and other designated export crops.
Tracker remarks
Awaiting debate
Source: parliament.go.ke. Last updated 5 Jul 2026.