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{
    "id": 1003623,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1003623/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 46,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "In my county, on the boundary between us and Kisumu, and I know that Sen. Rose Nyamunga knows this very well, we have Muhoroni Sugar Factory, which continues to face the kinds of challenges that are being spoken here by colleagues, Senators. Many of the times when the Government releases funds to pay farmers, farmers hardly ever receive their pay and even after they have supplied, they must at least know one or two people within the management of the factory or someone in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries for them to get what is rightfully theirs. You can imagine, that you toil as a farmer, ensure that you have a good crop, cut it and deliver to the factory, but to be paid is a big challenge. Therefore, I want to propose that the Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, which is seized of two or three Petitions with regards to sugar cane--- The other day, they had a Petition about Kibos Sugar Factory (KSF), where someone was using Government entities. The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) was being used to fight private business wars and they had shut down that factory. The truth of the matter is that with the failing practices of public owned sugarcane factories, our farmers resort to some of these well-run public entities like Kibos Sugar Factory. However, for reasons that are based on to some of the entrepreneurs that have got good networks in the Government of Kenya, the factories that consider citizens and treat them with the dignity that they deserve are not well taken care of. Therefore, I propose that the Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries do not just do small hurried reports hoping that they can be able to scrap away with the issues that have been proposed, but they should give us a unified Report of what is the status of the sugar industry in this country. Is it worth it to continue telling our farmers to plant sugarcane and that we are going to sort out this problem for them? Everybody consumes sugar at least in one form or the other and, therefore, it is not for lack of opportunities or places to sell their produce that these farmers continue to suffer, but because of a Government that has refused to listen to the plight of sugarcane farmers. I know that Members of the Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, when they retire to consider this Statement, alongside others issues which have been mentioned, they will give us a way forward. They will also provide a proposal so that we invite those representatives from various Government agencies to come to this House and demand from them that sugarcane farmers are farmers like those of tea and coffee whom we continue to hear about their plight year in, year out. Sugarcane farmers deserve to be treated with respect too. Thank you."
}