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{
    "id": 1398601,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1398601/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 251,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I thank you for the opportunity to address this august House on this important Bill. To begin with, I agree with Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale that this Bill should and must be passed. The most important thing at this stage is to disengage sugar farming from the Agriculture Food Authority (AFA), so that we can focus on matters sugar without being disrupted by matters Pyrethrum and other crops, which are equally important. By moving away from the AFA, we shall be leaving up to the maxim that bite small and chew finely to avoid constipation. AFA was an extremely messy contraption; too obese to do anything good for us. Secondly, I thank the Committee who found it appropriate to conduct public participation in Busia. We mobilized farmers from the county and other stakeholders across the region to come and participate and make contributions about the Bill. However, much as we want to pass this Bill, I have some reservations informed by the question of ownership of cane. Tenant farming is still continuing, where farmers become tenants on their own lands as millers own the sugarcane that they are growing on their own land. We need to interrogate that issue and see what proposals you can come up with to ensure that a farmer is not reduced to a tenant on his own land. Perhaps, that might require a deliberate move towards farmers’ cooperatives in the sugar industry, so that inputs and whatever support the national and county governments choose to give, reach the farmers through cooperatives and not through the sugar miller. The question for out grower companies for me is a no-go area. They demonstrated total incompetence. They were avenues for corruption, oppression and exploitation of the farmers. Most of them were used to stealing money from the same farmers and they mostly became agents of the millers. I would love a situation where the farmers grow the cane, organize themselves into groups, are financed, grow the cane, own the cane and when the cane is mature, they negotiate with the miller. Therefore, they can say, “we have got this much cane. How much are you willing to pay us or we move the next miller?” The idea of Government support to farmers being channelled through the millers tends to reduce the farmers to tenants on their own land and that for me is unacceptable. Also, the Bill is not very strong on the demand that factories modernize and begin producing more than just sugar from the raw product called sugarcane. There is need for millers to invest in modern technologies. Of course, they are making profits right now 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."
}