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{
    "id": 1420333,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1420333/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 386,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": " Sen. Olekina, I think you are conflating issues. What you are describing is a situation prevailing, where a farmer has delivered cane to a certain miller and they have not been paid. You are arguing that we need to provide mechanisms to ensure that they recover whatever they have delivered. That is a completely separate issue from the debate that we are having with Sen. (Dr.) Oburu. Sen. (Dr.) Oburu holds the position that there should be no exemption or restriction in the game and that it should be free and open. Unfortunately, this played out here on Tuesday. I do not know if Sen. Wambua was here. We had farmers from central region; Nandi, Uasin Gishu and Kericho, who appeared before the committee. The way it had previously been drafted in the law, when there was no this clause on exemption, farmers were up in arms. They said that we want to lump them in one region without providing room for them to do what we proposed to be provided for them to deliver wherever they want to. That is why we have provided this exemption with conditions that, first, you demonstrate that you had a pre-existing agreement with a miller. If, for example, you are in the central zone, already you have an agreement with another miller. You can ask to be exempted. Secondly, the grower is not indebted to any miller or out-grower institution within the sugar zone. That means that you do not owe anybody any money and you are not running away from anybody. Finally, you do not have a supply agreement between you and any miller within that particular region. Sen. (Dr.) Oburu, this is a perfect middle ground, given the fact that in the absence of this Clause 19A, you are left with Clause 19 as it is, which has put farmers into zones with no exit clause for them. You have described, there will be farmers who may feel that a certain miller who is not within their zone treats them better and they want to do business with them. I thought that is a better middle ground. The only point that has been raised here, which we need to reflect, is how to access the board. That is something the committee needs to guide us on how it will be done. Think of an average farmer at Kipsitet or any other part. You do not want to leave a peasant farmer who has an acre or two or even five acres of sugarcane at the expense of a body that sits here in Nairobi. That particular part should be drafted properly. It was until Sen. Mandago said it that I thought about. Either the chairperson needs to guide, or we need to reflect because the people in the House here are all representatives of sugarcane farmers. As we go along with this discussion, after Members have spoken, we need to sit down and agree on a better draft to this exemption, other than leaving an interaction between farmers and the board."
}