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{
    "id": 1250631,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1250631/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1729,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tigania West, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) John K. Mutunga",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "are the first charge. If we allocated Ksh16.9 billion to pay the pending bills, then there would be no activities within the agricultural sector, say in the crop section for that year. Similarly, the livestock subsector has pending bills of Ksh4.6 billion and a budget deficit of Ksh2.8 billion, totalling Ksh6.8 billion. Having said that, we rationalised where it was possible. We looked at sectors that have SAGAs that are making profit. So, we singled out SAGAs, which are either breaking even or making profit. The Kenya Seed Company is one of them. The Kenya Meat Commission is nearing profit making. The Agriculture and Food Authority is also making some profit. Still within the same sector, we have SAGAs that require support and need some budgetary support. Most of the public sugar millers will need support. The South Nyanza Sugar Company requires about Ksh1.2 billion. I urge this House to support the company. We have not done much on this issue and, in that respect, the Budget has not responded effectively to this sector. The question that lingers is: why should private millers make profit while public millers are not making profit? We have made it our business as a Committee to visit all the millers. We have been apprised of the issues they are going through. Some of them have historical debts that they are addressing right now. Some have renovation and improvement works ongoing. This is what has caused some of those problems. However, we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel in the sense that some of the SAGAs within the agricultural sector have made profit. In conclusion, because I would like to create time for my colleagues to also make contributions, we have made Budget proposals. We have rationalised these Budget proposals and put money where it will have maximum output and impact. We have also looked at which SAGAs can support themselves so as to wean them off Government support. We need to conduct serious scrutiny on these SAGAs so that we can classify them accordingly. In terms of where we are putting money, we have weaned off the Kenya Meat Commission, Kenya Seed Company and others. We have also considered how to address the issue of pending bills. I thank the Budget and Appropriations Committee for considering to start payment of some of these pending bills. Some of the pending bills have been outstanding for very many years, since the 1970s. Some have been paid. Some creditors have gone to court and got court awards. These court awards are already negotiated downwards and are still pending payment. We now have hope in that direction as some money has been set aside to clear pending bills. Let me single out a case of last year's maize flour subsidy, which we have been considering. Yesterday, the Committee adopted our report on the maize flour subsidy. Last year, many Kenyans never enjoyed the two-kilogramme packets of maize flour that cost Ksh100. We isolated who did what and whose packaging we can follow to the end. Some of them were not clear towards the end of the value chain. I will be presenting the report in this House so that we can discuss it. At the end of the day, we singled out the small-scale maize millers who sold their maize at their factories where they opened up retail centres. They sold this maize meal at Ksh100. We have evidence that it was sold. On the other hand, we did not clear the large-scale millers because they did not give us sufficient evidence and the figures were not tallying as it were. Finally, we need to raise a lot of money in order to support what can give us revenue. Agriculture has the potential to give us sufficient revenue, foreign exchange and create jobs in this country. If we put money into this sector, we can improve and develop this country faster. But we cannot say we put in money when we do not have the money. That is why revenue generation is very important. Any measures that the Government can come up with need to be considered and supported in order to raise enough money to support our economy. With those very few remarks, I wish to support. Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. 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."
}