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{
    "id": 1282220,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1282220/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 266,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ugenya, MDG",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. David Ochieng’",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2955,
        "legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
        "slug": "david-ouma-ochieng"
    },
    "content": "split hairs and create a Sugar Board and various other bodies but if we do not make the farmer the centre of sugar production, it will never work. Hon. Temporary Speaker, farmers’ cooperative societies, and not individuals, should import sugar. Certain individuals are issued with licences and allowed to import sugar duty- free. The sugar industry is cartel-ridden. If we do not allow farmers to import sugar, we will lose money. How much money do we make every year when we allow duty-free and quarter- free importation of sugar? Why do we do so? There are no returns. As Hon. Wandayi said, sugar production in Nyanza was done on Government land. Cabinet Secretaries are now giving out land to whoever they like and to the highest bidder. In Siaya, a m z ungu set up Dominion Farms in Yala Swamp, which can produce more than one million jobs in Nyanza. What do we do? Politicians are the most corrupt members of our society. They have collapsed the sugar industry. Let nobody lie to you that cartels are found elsewhere. They are in this House. Politicians who import sugar use that money for their campaigns. Let nobody lie to you that the corrupt are in UDA or ODM. Most politicians are dirty and they use dirty money from sugar. Money from sugar has no political party or tribal sides. If I were a voter from western Kenya, I would not vote for a Member of Parliament who lies during every election year that he will sort out the mess in the sugar industry, and yet he does nothing but takes money from sugar factories. We must be honest if we want to help sugar farmers. We should institute serious and honest measures to ensure that the farmer is at the centre of the sugar industry. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I do not understand why people in the Government think that Government should have a role in importation of sugar. The Government has no role in the importation of furniture or cars apart from levying fees. Why should the Government poke its nose in the importation of sugar? In Europe and the United States of America (USA) today, beetroot farming is the most subsidised sector of the sugar industry. Sugarcane farming is always subsidised. I do not fear saying that our country gives tea farmers Ksh4 billion, coffee farmers Ksh5 billion but Mumias Sugar Company gets a paltry Ksh500 million. You then say that you have helped them. You have done nothing. Sugarcane farmers have always gotten the shortest end of the stick for a long time."
}