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"id": 216926,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/216926/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Ochilo-Ayacko",
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"speaker": {
"id": 347,
"legal_name": "Ochilo George Mbogo Ayacko",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to speak on this very important issue. I am very happy to be speaking immediately after the Minister for Roads and Public Works. I had an occasion last week to plead with the Minister for Roads and Public Works to fix a bridge in my constituency. The reason as to why I spoke to the Minister is that I also had occasion to attend my District Roads Committee, and the answer I was given was that funding was not available. I believe that the mere fact that Members of Parliament attend District Roads Committee does not, in its very nature, avail funds to those committees. Now that this House, last week, gave some funding to the Treasury to fund the same Ministry, I will be very happy if the Minister for Roads and Public Works funds Nyarach-Oboke- Kamegi Road, so that the people of Rongo District can link up with the people of Homa Bay District. There are other problems that Members of Parliament encounter in respect of roads in this country. Such problems must be addressed by this House, and not necessarily by those Committees. I think this is also a problem that is visited on the Ministry of Roads and Public Works by the Treasury. Most of the time, the Treasury does not avail money to the Department of Roads to fix roads on an emergency basis. Mr. Speaker, Sir, my district and the neighbouring district grow sugar-cane, mill it and supply sugar to this country. It is a known fact that there is a deficit of sugar in this country. The Kenyan people demand sugar and consume it to such an extent that the millers in this country cannot supply. Every year, within the month of either February or March, there is normally a window through which sugar is imported for general consumption in this country. There was nowhere in the Budget Speech and in the commitment of the Government funding that is intended June 27, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2105 to put up additional sugar factories, not even funding that is intended to expand the existing sugar factories so that this country becomes self-reliant in sugar production. Mr. Speaker, Sir, a country that cannot feed itself cannot pride itself that it has some growth. We are basically a deficit country in terms of food production. So, when we hear some Ministers of the Government saying that this country is doing well, we wonder. If you cannot feed yourself and if you have to import food, because sugar is food from other parts of the world, you cannot brag to any person other than people who do not understand the true merit of bragging, that you are a country on the path of growth. This country has enormous potential in terms of growing, milling and consumption of sugar. What happened to Ramisi? Ramisi in Coast Province that was promised by our dear Government about six years ago? What happened to South Nyanza Sugar Company? It was proposed for expansion two-fold. We are at the tail end of our parliamentary tenure, this Government is at its sunset hours and there is not a single mill in terms of sugarproduction that has been brought into the country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, Busia Sugar Company was a commitment made by the previous Government and a commitment assumed by the present Government and there is nothing. The Kenyan public are very much willing to buy sugar. They are actually buying at any price but nothing doing from the part of the Government that is enjoined towards mobilisation of resources, so that factories can be put up. As if to add insult to injury, the Minister for Finance took away the levy that was being used to regulate the importation of sugar in so far as white sugar is concerned. I am very suspicious of the intention of the Minister for Finance. Last year, the Minister attempted to sneak in a similar amendment and this House was very hostile. I wonder what amnesia the Minister suffers from, because he seems to have forgotten that his Finance Bill was mutilated by this House and rejected on account of the levy that he had attempted to remove. That levy that is imposed on white sugar is supposed to protect the already fragile and delicate sugar sub-sector. Mumias, Chemelil, SONY and other sugar companies in this country produce sugar for industrial use. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if they produce sugar for industrial use and they are enjoined to pay that levy, and sugar for industrial use that comes in by way of imports is allowed to come in without that levy, I think somebody is saying something that does not add up. I suspect that somebody somewhere is trying to stash money in some banks for the next coming General Election. Sugar as a commodity, has been used invariably by Governments or administrations in the past to fund elections, and I suspect that somebody is not saying the truth on this matter because he would like to benefit from sugar that is being imported into this country. In fact, news in this country indicated that, as the Minister was smiling and citing some story told by a 13-year-old boy, there was already sugar at the Port of Mombasa and nobody from that side of the Government has come up and denied that allegation. I suspect that the removal of that levy was intended to benefit that person who had brought sugar at the Port of Mombasa, and that person must be smiling at the expense of many farmers and consumers of sugar who depend on that industry. Mr. Speaker, Sir, you know very well that majority of Kenyans live in rural areas."
}