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{
    "id": 1379086,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1379086/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 192,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Linturi",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock Development",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 69,
        "legal_name": "Franklin Mithika Linturi",
        "slug": "franklin-linturi"
    },
    "content": "because it gives me the basis to provide some background for the Hon. Members to understand the problems we have and see how they can intervene and give us support which will go a long way towards streamlining and reforming the sugar sector. This is the space where there are more cartels than anywhere else. When we started the process of reforming the sugar sector, I personally met 57 Members of Parliament at Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) together with the governors from the sugar growing areas. We wanted to agree on the way forward because we understand the meaning of this industry to the Kenyan economy and to the people of the Western region; where sugar is grown. Government has committed a lot of resources and continues to invest in this sector. It is quite painful because we have just concluded paying farmers around Kshs1.3 billion. We have a debt balance of about Kshs400million needed in order to get farmers back in their farms to produce cane for crushing. This country had a serious shortage of sugar to the extent that we are forced to import from Common Markets for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) and non-COMESA countries. We have been threatened with non-extension of the COMESA safeguards that we have had for some time because they shall not be extended after two years. There is a need for us to think together to sort out the problems in the sugar sector. We cannot do this without the support of the leaders of this country. The Kenya Kwanza administration led by President William Ruto has already paid the farmers. We have already come up with a leasing model so that we can get investors to invest by bringing in new technology and variety and support farmers by paying them good time to produce enough cane for crushing. This will essentially supply the local demand of sugar and get us away from the problem of importing sugar from outside the country. Inevitably, this leads us to lose a lot of foreign currency. During the short time we have been there, we have tried to bring order. What we have tried to do has been a subject of serious court litigation. Even now, the sugar leasing model we want to implement has led us back in court because we have been stopped by an order to not continue with the process. I believe that the cartels around the sugar sector have been paying litigants to go to court and try to stop the process. We are determined because we mean well for the sugarcane farmers. We will do our best to ensure that this process continues. I have appointed MDs of companies but some people have gone to court to challenge those appointments. Right now, the public sugar companies which we are all aware of have people on acting capacity. The last appointment I was supposed to do was for Sony Sugar Company. Before I pronounced myself to the appointment, I got an order not to appoint certain people and neither could I appoint any of the recommended people. If there was a direction not to appoint “Mr. so and so” and because the recommendation sent to me had three names, I would have picked anyone. However, we are in a state where we have to believe in the rule of law as government. We have actively involved the court to deal with these issues. As far as my Ministry is concerned and with the direction of the President, our main target is to ensure that we sort out this problem in the sugar industry. Of course, I The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard Services,Senate."
}