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{
    "id": 1476538,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1476538/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 89,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Westlands, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Tim Wanyonyi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. The sugar industry in this country has brought abject poverty. Factories ceased to pay farmers many years ago. The farmers either have sugarcane on the farms rotting away or delivered to the factories, but are never paid. There is a big problem, especially in the western and Nyanza regions. Some time back, Nzoia Sugar Company Ltd and Mumias Sugar Company Ltd were doing well. The farmers were thriving because they were paid as expected. You could even see this in markets because everyone was doing very well. But then came a group of conmen, the middlemen. They are the ones who interfered with the sugar industry. They started negotiating for non-existent things and made sure that the factories were paying them and not the farmers. Hon. Temporary Speaker, Government and political interference also dealt a big blow to these factories. Over and over, they would fire competent managers and hire political ones without an idea of managing a factory. I remember of a man who performed well in Nzoia Sugar Company Ltd, and after being there for a short period, the factory started paying farmers on time. They were milling and selling sugarcane well, but political interference came about because people wanted to recruit a local person who had no idea how to manage the factory. That brought many problems that exist until now. I do not think these factories will ever be revived. The Government keeps on pumping money there, but it is just a waste of time. We must find a lasting solution to these factories. We passed a Bill here to privatise and hand over these factories to strategic partners who can bring in money and revive the factories, the way the West Kenya Sugar Company and Butali Sugar Company are functioning. These two factories have no sugarcane farms, but they mill and get sugarcane from all over the place. They get the sugarcane and pay the farmers directly. Therefore, the elimination of middlemen brings quick returns to the factory and the farmers benefit more. These middlemen are prevalent in Mumias Sugar Company, Nzoia Sugar Company and South Nyanza Sugar Company (Sony Sugar). These factories suffer because of middlemen. Moving forward, the Government should completely get out of the sugar industry. It should sell all the shares to a strategic partner who can come with money to invest, improve the factories and revive them to start working. There are people who are ready and willing, but at times, the negotiations take long and at times a wrong turn because there are people who demand for kickbacks before putting pen to paper. This is something that has brought many problems. We have not had these problems in the coffee and tea sectors because they are very well managed and farmers are directly involved in the management of the factories. Political appointees and all those people who come without any knowledge of how to manage sugar factories are the ones running them down. This is something that we need to look at. Hon. Temporary Speaker, thank you very much for giving me a chance to contribute on this."
}