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{
    "id": 1490656,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1490656/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 150,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Thangwá",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "As I conclude, I would want to commend both Houses because we have looked at the Bill and come up with different amendments. One of them is to protect farmers; that is to regulate sugar imports. Sugar importation is one of the things that has crippled the production of sugar because there are people who are given that work, they overload, or they oversupply sugar. That is why farmers are not benefiting. There are no sugar factories in Kiambu County, but I have learnt that they pay in losses. If you charge less, the farmers will not supply. The farmers are told they will be paid more; they bring the sugarcane, and then they are not paid. This is why the Government is offsetting billions of loans, and these loans have been taken to pay the farmers. If the sugarcane miller is not assisting any farmer, why do we need it? We should make this market liberal. A farmer can take the sugarcane everywhere, just like the way all of us are in Safaricom. Nobody came up with a law and told us to go to Safaricom. It is because the services were better there, and that is why people went there. If the sugarcane miller is a good sugarcane miller, people will go there. They do not need the law, but be paid for their produce. This law brings about transparency and accountability. One thing that I support about the levy is research because we need to do research. Do we only rely on sugarcane, the traditional way of making sugar? We have other produce or crops that we call sugar beets. Do we tell our farmers that sugar beets are easy to grow but produce the same equal kind of product, that is sugar? We need to fund research, and this Bill is bringing about research. In conclusion, I have looked at the membership of the Kenya Sugar Board, and it recommends a three-year term. Where we are right now, the country is in pain and is protesting because somebody somewhere has proposed a seven-year term for the President, the Member of Parliament and the Senator. For us, the laws we make, we put a three-year term for the members of the boards: the Kenya Sugar Board, the Kenya Coffee Board, and the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK); every Government parastatal, we give them three years. However, we give ourselves seven years. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this is a conversation that this country needs to have. We should not just do what benefits us, as legislators. We should do what benefits the people of Kenya. This is why Sen. Mungatana could not stand it when I compared the expediency of his vote to kick out somebody to his vote to have the people of his county have a sugar mill. I am done."
}