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"id": 1398596,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. If there is one thing that this House should do is to pass this Bill. Even if there are a million amendments that are supposed to be there, this Bill is an admission of how Parliament can fail. In 2013, somebody came with a Bill in this House canvassing for the establishment of the Agricultural and Food Authority (AFA), which passed but it killed the sugar industry. I agree with many Members, especially with the views of the Senator of Vihiga County, who appears to appreciate the meaning of this Bill. That there are gaps but for starters, let us pass this Bill because we are re-establishing the Kenya Sugar Board. Once you re-establish the Kenya Sugar Board, that is the beginning of recovery. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I know you were not there. You were busy in your law firm at that time or probably at the University of Nairobi. What happened is that some tomcats, Treasury mandarins, started salivating for the money in the accounts of the Kenya Sugar Board. They looked at the Kenya Sugar Board and found billions of shillings, but the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya (PBK) account was negative together with others. They wanted to sweep the money, which they did and then disappeared. In the process, they crippled the livelihood of 25 per cent of Kenya’s population that depends on this industry. Arithmetically, that converts at the current population of 55 million Kenyans to 14 million Kenyans, who were adversely affected. Together with that, 250,000 small-scale farmers were shortchanged. The amount of poverty this has visited in the Sugar belt cannot be described. The once vibrant economy in Shibale market in Mumias has closed down. Kakunga market in Mumias has closed down. In Navakholo the markets have also closed down. Mumias Town itself is the same, just because of the failure of this Parliament. Parliament should never fail. Therefore, I appeal to colleagues to listen carefully to the contributions from Senators from the sugar belt. These are 12 counties starting from Kwale up to the border with Uganda. I thank the Committee through its Chair for coming to Kakamega County. I want to urge the Senator of Nandi, who is my neighbor, to use kind words to this Committee. They did an excellent job. I saw them, and was in their meeting. They never lobbied me. However, because sugarcane farming is very important, I was interested. They did not even have enough money to go to five or seven star hotels outside Kakamega County, but they lived on. I am proud of this Committee. This Bill in its First Schedule speaks to the sticking issue of zoning, which is a very pregnant issue. It is a hot brick and if not managed properly, it can be abused. Therefore, I want to support them that we go by the proposals of the taskforce. However, during the third stage, I would like to appeal to the Chair to adopt some of our proposals, so that they become the proposals for amendment by the Chair to give it the weight that it would deserve for us to polish it even further. If you do not do it very well, zoning which is supposed to kill poaching of cane, can also enslave the farmers in that zone, in the sense that you will be coerced through legislation to deliver your cane to a factory in your zone, whether it pays you well or not, timeously or not, or whether it harvest on time or not. This is why I say we polish it. 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 and AudioServices, Senate."
}