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{
    "id": 1156230,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1156230/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 137,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "Kenya, it has become a cliché to say that they will put x amount of money in Mumias Sugar Company to revive it. Sometimes, you look at people and wish that they could get angry and stone all politicians. Every political formation, for as long as I remember from 2002, 2007, 2013 and 2017 has made this promise yet it never comes to fruition. I hope for a fact that with the passage of this Bill, when we set up this particular Board, it will sort the financial sector. This is because the agricultural sector is made up of two components. If you have sort the two, you have sorted the entire value chain. For example, the production side ensures that the farm inputs are at a good price and the market side ensures that it is being purchased at a good price. This reminds me of something that we might raise a statement about it next week. That is the fertilizer subsidy programme. I wish to go on record in this House that officials of the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) are in a panic right now. This is because, one, they are asked to run a fertilizer subsidy programme yet they are not being told how many companies will participate in this subsidy programme. They are being forced to single source which is bringing a lot of challenges to them. Secondly and most important is: Which is the standard body apart from Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS)? KEBS is ours and we respect it. However, sometimes given the way things are done in the country, we may require other bodies to check apart from the Government agencies, the quality of these fertilizers that we are selling to farmers at Kshs2,800. There maybe very serious crisis next year and officials of NCPB need to come to this House and explain those two components. Madam Temporary Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity. I believe when the Committee gives us the Report, they will tell us where they have proposed that we make changes so that we conclude and, at least, give value to our farmers. What do we exist for if we cannot sort even the key agricultural sectors that keep us going as country like tea, sugar, dairy and cotton? Its unfair on us, as a House. We cannot be running year in, year out. It does not matter the political formation that carries the day. These are obvious things that we need to have sorted out long time ago. However, because of commercial interest like those who have spoken earlier have said it, many of these private players are so powerful and so well connected. In the life of this Parliament, you remember what happened to our colleagues in the National Assembly when it was found that somebody had imported sugar with mercury into the country. A whole Committee of Parliament was sent helter-skelter and there were accusations right, left and centre. That Report disappeared. Nobody was ever charged and no licence was revoked. That is how strong and powerful some of these people that we are fighting against are. Madam Temporary Speaker, I believe that it is not impossible to organise our sugar sector back to even better heights than what it used to be in the 1980s and 1990s. We should put our farmers in cooperatives and ensure that our mills are well taken care of without having to interfere with them unnecessarily and have our farmers earn just like those across the borders in other parts of the country. It is possible. I laud the passage of this Bill. I hope we will conclude on it before the end of our term so that our farmers can appreciate and enjoy the fruits of our work."
}