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{
    "id": 1156210,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1156210/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 117,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I know that there will be proposed amendments. I am glad that there is now going to be a bird’s eye view of the sector on the issue of importation. What happens is that an artificial shortage is created by the same players who want to import sugar, and it is a huge industry. In fact, those who have killed Mumias Sugar Company are extremely close to Mumias Sugar, Butali and Muhoroni sugar companies. These sugar industry agreements have been covered in this law. There is the issue of rights of growers in privatised companies because that has been the fear even when you look at all these promises that are being made about revival of certain factories about the growers rights when a company is being privatised and how you protect them, especially within the nucleus. On the issue of the sugar development levy, we have said that research institutions should not only draw from the sugar development levy. There is the provision on sugar research in this Bill. You cannot have that sugar research institution in Nairobi. Those institutions - whether it is Masinde Muliro University or Kibabii University - in that area that is growing sugar are the ones that should be transformed or rather create the capacity for the sugar research to be done in those areas. Our young people who are going to school need to be educated to understand how to best utilise land, grow the sugarcane, the economic aspects of it not just the agricultural, the economic aspects of millers and milling and how you price and the financial management. Our farmers need to be trained on all that, so that we can transform them. Otherwise, it is only an insane person who does the same thing the same way and expects a different result. We hope we can amend this Board. Agriculture is devolved majorly and it is only policy that is at the top. The composition of this Board has very little representation from the governors or the county governments. It is full of somebody appointed Cabinet Secretary a chairman; representatives of the elected growers and millers; the Principal Secretary (PS), National Treasury; the PS, Agriculture; the CEO and one person from the Council of Governors (CoG). These county governments need better representation, especially the county governments that are around that area. You then expect them as well to do some work, whether it is extension services or different ways of supporting the farmers. Therefore, they should be represented in the Kenya Sugar Board in a bigger way. The Kenya Sugar Research Institute is actually a corporate body with perpetual succession and a seal. A part from promoting and coordinating research in sugarcane and sugarcane diseases and access to research information et cetera on development of the crop, they should play a role in terms of the economic development of the growers and the farmers of that area. We are not growing sugarcane because we like tea or it is sweet. Sugarcane is being grown because of the economic aspect of it; it needs to help people earn a living. Therefore, you do not just tell them that this is how you grow it best, but this is how you manage an enterprise. We are talking of agribusiness, not just agriculture for the sake of it. That needs to be included in addition to the issues of agro-ecological research, sugar research, monitoring pests and diseases; the economic packages."
}