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{
    "id": 1398598,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1398598/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 248,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 170,
        "legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
        "slug": "bonny-khalwale"
    },
    "content": "private players and the local producers, so that there is shared prosperity as envisioned in the letter and spirit of the Constitution of Kenya 2010. In this Bill and I will be specific, we are speaking to the issue of cess. A Member spoke to this issue and took it lightly. He thought money was being taken to Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA). The Member said it was being given to Members of Parliament. This is not true. In this Bill, the money being taken to KeRRA is for the development of roads in the catchment area, which is exactly what the cess is supposed to do. The Bill is well drafted to that extent. It is not by accident that the Mover of this Bill in the National Assembly is the Hon. Member of Parliament for Navakholo in Kakamega County. In this House, it is the distinguished Senator for Bungoma County. It is because we are the ones wearing that shoe, and we know where it pinches. If we fix our sugar industry in Kakamega County, our Own-Source Revenue will triple. Mumias Sugar Company has a potential turnover of Kshs24 billion. Butali Sugar Company has turnover of Kshs10 billion. West Kenya Sugar Company has turnover of Kshs14 billion. With this kind of turnover, automatically, our Own-Source Revenue will shoot up. This was the original intention of devolution; that we open up economies of counties, so that they can grow their Own-Source Revenue. I was at an investment conference in Kakamega last week. I looked at it and said that it would be difficult with the quality of thinking to unlock economies. Nothing was inspiring about the sugar industry, yet it is the backbone of Kakamega. Allow me to speak to the following clauses. I can see my time flying away. I will not speak to many clauses. Clause 38 is on a sugar development levy. The Chairperson to the Committee, please, look at this Clause. You cannot succeed in the sugar industry without the farmer and the miller. Therefore, when you share out the money for the sugar development levy in Clause 38(6)(a), instead of giving 15 per cent to the millers and five per cent to the farmers, you must balance it, so that the miller gets 10 per cent and the farmer gets 10 per cent. It is a symbiotic relationship. If the farmer gets discouraged, the miller cannot have raw material. If the miller gets discouraged, the farmer will lack a market. Let us give it the seriousness it deserves. The penultimate Clause I want to speak to is Clause 58 on pricing. Clause 58 (3) (c) states that- “The main objective of the committee shall be to ensure adherence to the negotiated cane processing formula.” This is the backbone of what I was talking about on shared prosperity. If you do not adhere to it and allow the investors to have a big say because they have the money to influence meetings, then farmers end up being shortchanged. Finally, Clause 59 speaks to the representation of a grower in the private milling company. Sen. Osotsi missed it by a kilometer. The reason members are allowed to sit as directors is because left on its own, he would shortchange us. It is like taking your goat to the market in Lubao and asking the person who will slaughter the goat to decide the price of the goat without reference to the owner of the goat. Sen. Osotsi, why we need the owner of the goat who is the sugarcane farmer in this case to also speak in the Lubao Market is because if he keeps quiet, his goat worth Kshs12,000 can be sold for as little as 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."
}