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{
    "id": 1463639,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1463639/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 552,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nyando, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Jared Okello",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Some of those companies actually struggle to break even. A classic example is sugar companies that the Government owns. It is a fact that some employees have not been paid for 59 months. I have said 59 months! You have farmers whose arrears have gone up to Ksh1.2 billion. I am happy that, a month ago, the Government cleared all outstanding arrears that have been accruing and owed to farmers. The last batch of that payment was Ksh354 million that was paid to our farmers under three weeks ago. That is a good step in the right direction. The question is: What happens to monies owed to farmers? It is much money. Companies that continue operating have not paid employees who have plugged into them for the last 60 months. What happens to the sale of sugar? There is a problem somewhere. We also know that crooked Governments make sugar and oil the lowest hanging fruits during campaigning seasons for making cheap money. That is why they constantly come up with duty-free sugar. As they import the sugar that attracts no taxes, they sell it for the same prevailing market price and make ginormous profits out of it. Again, that kind of action kills our sugar sector here at home. We are so happy to propagate the benefits of sugar industries across our borders when our own are dying here. That is a travesty that needs to be properly tackled. I hope that the Speaker of Senate, together with the Speaker of the National Assembly, will move with speed to concoct a mediation team to thrash out those issues within a very short period, so that we can attain an Act to look into the sugar sector in general. Sugarcane farming is a labour- intensive exercise. People take their sugarcane to factories, but wait for payment forever. It is not right. That is why many people started uprooting sugarcane from their farms because it attracts no benefits to those farmers at all."
}