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{
    "id": 1398603,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1398603/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 253,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The other thing that has been overlooked is the environmental damage that sugarcane causes. Sugarcane farming is very heavy on the environment. It takes a lot of chemicals, fertilizers and all those things. Many of our water masses have been nitrified. For example, Lake Victoria is virtually a dying lake now due to the farming methods of cane in Western province. Most of the soils within the sugar belt have become too acidic for viable farming. Let nobody cheat you; something must be done to control the growth of cane in the lowlands. Our swamps have all been drained. We do not have swamps. In my village, we used to have a beautiful swamp called Kakoleit, which means, the home of fish. This is an area where fish used to breed a lot, and then the fish would go down to Lake Victoria during the heavy rains. These swamps have been drained. They are now sugarcane plantations. No wonder there is no fish in Lake Victoria. That is one of the contributing factors. We must also come up with mechanisms to control and mitigate the environmental damage that sugarcane farming is causing. Otherwise, we might be doing what is akin to cutting down Kakamega Forest, led by Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale, creating temporary jobs by those who will be cutting down the wood and hewing it into timber, and exporting the timber out and reflecting growth in our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Then tomorrow, when the droughts come and ravage us, we will begin wondering what hit us. We must embrace sugarcane farming and ensure that it is environmentally friendly. The use of the word “environment” could be misplaced. I personally do not believe in the word ‘environment’. I believe in the word “ecosystem” because environment takes you out of the ecosystem and makes you the boss of the ecosystem, such that it becomes something surrounding that you can exploit. We must create a sugar ecosystem that is sustainable in the sugar farming areas. On the composition of the board, I notice we still have the question of farmers' representatives. If the experience under the defunct Kenya Sugar Board is anything to go by, you realise that the farmers lacked the capacity to campaign and become directors on the board. At the end of the day, individuals were sponsored by the millers to go and be representatives of farmers on the board. All they did while on the board was farmers' bidding. We need to look at the composition of the board and how we will ring-fence it in such a way that millers do not sponsor their puppets to go on the board, such that whatever the solution of the board makes is just miller-friendly and never farmer- friendly. I am also happy that the Bill provides for a major role by the county governments. That provision that the county governments within a cluster of farming cane will come up with the regulations or implementation mechanisms of this Act. This is very important. We must empower our counties to be able to deliver on that mandate. Otherwise, it would just be wishful thinking. It is a mandate that requires a lot of input and so, we must find a way of empowering our counties. The question of the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) being given money should not be there unless KeRRA is devolved. KeRRA and Kenya Urban Roads 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."
}