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{
    "id": 624471,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/624471/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 158,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ochieng",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2955,
        "legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
        "slug": "david-ouma-ochieng"
    },
    "content": "make profit but to ensure that sugar production goes on as a going concern. Whether profits are made or not is never an issue. The issue is whether farmers are able to get their monies back and whether the country is able to produce enough sugar. Mauritius produces a lot of sugar but it never consumes it. It sells it to the European Union (EU) and imports cheaper sugar from its neighbouring countries because of the programmes that are all over the world. For example, the EU has given Mauritius and Kenya, alongside most African countries, a chance to sell sugar in their countries at very high price. Kenya should also look at this kind of scenario. We can produce sugar, sell it to countries that will buy it at high prices and then import cheaper sugar for our consumption. This is even as we ensure that our farmers are shielded. Corruption in the sugar industry has to be handled the way Koreans handled development trajectory in the early 70s, 80s and 90s, when Goldenberg scandal was happening in Kenya. In Malaysia, Singapore and Korea, if the government had a scheme to help farmers and you are found to have done things that would make farmers lose, you are hanged. You would die if the action you have taken undermines and compromises the lives of very many people. This is what the barons in the sugar industry do in this country. It is a shame that we say that Kenya is efficient and is more developed than Malawi and Sudan and yet we still produce sugar at double the price that Sudan produces its sugar. We also produce sugar at double price than Malawi. So, how developed are we? As I contribute on this Report, I want to say that this Parliament and the last Parliament have done a disservice to farmers. We have tended to concentrate more on who should go where, who should do what and whose names we want to call in terms of sugar. Let the 11th Parliament be the Parliament that will address the root cause of the problem in the sugar industry once and for all. The issues are raised here and what needs to be done is in this Report. Handling low productivity, payment of farmers or handling illegal imports are all here. I wish the ministries and politicians would, for a moment, take a breath and say that, at least, if they do something in the agricultural sector, they will help farmers. There is this fallacy of people thinking that sugar is only grown in western Kenya, and that sugar only helps the Luhya community. Sugar helps the whole country. All the way from Mombasa to North Eastern, sugar is the livelihood of very many people. I have watched debate on the sugar sector for the last few days. We think that sugar is the only mainstay for western Kenya and most people from this region want to talk about it. Sugar is a mainstay for very many people. So, we should address the sugar industry holistically without apportioning blame. We should have a new start and say that we will try and ensure that farmers are paid on time. We should weed out brokers and ensure that farmers get their dues. We should ensure that the Government follows factories that operate in this country to ensure that the money put in by taxpayers is used well. It is only in this country where we still use the 1902, 1912 and 1947 technology to produce sugar. Other countries have moved on to have sugarcane that matures in 12 months. Sugarcane is grown in my constituency, Ugenya. Some of it takes 36 months to mature. I am now clearing a farm to build a college. Sugarcane has been on that farm for the last 48 months and it has not been harvested. It is now going to waste. So, as a people, we must agree that this is what we want to do. If we cannot agree that way, then we should forget about sugar. Let us not disturb farmers and tell them to plant sugarcane which is not harvested and if it is harvested, farmers are not paid. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}