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{
    "id": 1283554,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1283554/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 269,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Speaker, you have seen how Hon. Wangwe has been active in pushing for the Sugar Bill. If the sugar companies in the Western Kenya belt and parts of the Coast had been privatised 10 or 15 years ago, you can imagine the value we would have derived from them. I pray this time round, we get it right so that we do not punish another generation. We have wasted 15 years trying to privatise state-owned entities. If you visit some that were earmarked for privatisation, they are dead. If you were to privatize some today, we would sell them for a song or no value. But had we done it at the right time, we would have derived value for the public. Those entities would have become more efficient, and we would have deployed private capital and expertise from the private sector, enhancing efficiency in their operations. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I mentioned the sugar industry because it is one such case. Whether you go to Mumias, Nzoia, or South Nyanza Sugar Company (SONY), you will be shocked by the kind of equipment in those companies. Sugar companies are so moribund and inefficient that it becomes so expensive to run those entities. Successive administrations, from the Kibaki administration to the Kenyatta administration, with the exception of the Ruto administration, have pumped money into Mumias Sugar Company. What has been derived from that money? Absolutely nothing. We have wasted a lot of public resources because of pumping money into inefficient entities, and that is what is informing this Privatisation Bill. This will enhance efficiency in state-owned entities because we will deploy private capital, expertise, and technology from the private sector. If we had deployed private expertise in Mumias, the cartels running the sugar sector in Kenya would have been driven out of business years ago. I commend His Excellency the President because he has told these cartels that there are only three things to do in this country: Mambo ni matatu. We have been speaking about the fight against corruption. All we have done in this country is to speak about the fight against corruption. Nobody has been bold enough to act on issues of corruption. The President has shown the country that he intends to act on corruption with mambo ni matatu . He is not just speaking about corruption. In the last regime, at one point during the State of the Nation Address, the former President, when speaking about corruption, fired over 200 public officers, many of whom ended up getting back into public service. We are all accustomed to speaking about corruption."
}