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{
    "id": 1463655,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1463655/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 568,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Caroli Omondi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "When Miwani was privately owned, it made money. When the Government acquired it, it stopped making money. So was Mumias. If you look at the history, we have no business as the Government of Kenya being in the sugar sector. Even this Motion and why I agree with it, we do not need to encourage the Government to incentivise farmers. If the private sector was running the mills through extension services and credit facilities, we would have enough raw materials for our mills. What we need to do is to divest completely as a Government from the sugar industries in the Republic of Kenya and hand them over to the private sector. There are two ways of doing that, and it is not rocket science. One, we need strategic investors with the capital and the know-how to run the sugar mills. Then, we need to isolate part of the shareholding and float them through the Nairobi Stock Exchange through what is called an Initial Public Offering so that members of the public can own shares in those sugar mills. Thirdly, we need to organise the out-growers into investment groups so that they too can be shareholders in those sugar mills. We are very sensitive about the so-called nucleus estates. To me, it is lack of understanding of how business works. The land should not withhold the privatisation of the sugar mills. It is very simple. We need to separate the mill from the out-grower nucleus. The out-grower nucleus can continue belonging to the county governments and then leased to the sugar mills on a long-term basis, but the sugar mills should be 100 per cent privatised and given out to investors so that they can be modernised. We have no business having multiple sugar mills in very un-economic areas. If you go to Brazil, sugar mills that are privately owned have their own railway stations. Even here in South Africa, if you go to KwaZulu-Natal, mills have their own railway lines that transport sugar. They organise the farmers and do their own research. The Government should only restrict itself to doing sugar research and regulating how the market works. But we have no business as a Government being in the sugar mills. Today, the proposed privatisation has stalled in court because of politicians. Some politicians in western Kenya have organised themselves and incited some farmers to go to court to stop the privitisation so that they can continue stealing. We once went with the former Prime Minister to Nzoia Sugar Company Limited and gave 150 tractors to outgrowers of the company. Within months, they were all vandalised. I challenge any one of you to go to any sugar mill and outgrowers. You will see equipment that has been vandalised by politicians. It is the same politicians who are in the outgrower organisations. We need to get rid of politicians. And the only way to do this is by privatising the mills so that farmers and investors can run their mills. We have no business being there. Hon. Temporary Speaker, let me conclude, so that I can give my colleagues time to contribute. Let us not be holden to traditional ways of thinking how business is conducted. As a Government, we cannot continue selling meat and eggs and having parastatals that do things that the private sector can do better. It is time we let the sugar industry go to the private hands so that it becomes profitable. When privatising, we should not give them to the current millers. When we are privatising Miwani Sugar Company Limited and Chemelil Sugar Company Limited, we cannot allow Kibos Sugar and Allied Industries to own them. When privatising Nzoia Sugar Millers, we cannot allow Butali Sugar Mills Ltd to own them. Also, when privatising the lower mills in Trans Mara or in Mumias, we should not allow the established private mills to own them as we will be creating monopolies and duopolies. We cannot do that. We must allow other players to come into the sector with experience of the mills and you will see a very vibrant sector. With those few remarks, I beg to support the Motion. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}