HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 252946,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/252946/?format=api",
"text_counter": 182,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 193,
"legal_name": "Peter Anyang' Nyong'o",
"slug": "peter-nyongo"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I stand to support this Motion very strongly. I have had several discussions with the Minister and I know that he has a very forthcase spirit towards the sugar industry but he alone is not enough to move the sugar industry. We need the whole of the Government to commit itself to making the sugar industry contribute positively to the economy of this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the sugar industry has a tremendous potential to contribute towards the economic recovery of this country. The sugar industry supports about four million people in this Republic. Four million Kenyans depend directly on the sugar industry both as sugar producers, workers and traders. If you look at a little island like Cuba you will find that some time ago it had 27 sugar mills. They have now been reduced to 11 precisely because the efficiency of production both at the mill level and in the farms is so high that the island now depends on only 11 sugar factories. The diversification of the products produced is so tremendous that it is not the table sugar that they look forward to in terms of the produce of the sugar industry but other products like power alcohol, spirits, medicine and so on. So, we are sitting on a gold mine but because of the past poor politics and governance in this country, the sugar industry has never been taken seriously. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, some time ago, I think during the last days of the Kenyatta era, we started producing power alcohol in this country and we started having it at the pump level for our vehicles so that we could move away from dependence on oil. All countries in the world today realise that oil sooner rather than later is going to be an endangered mineral because there is depletion of oil production all over the world. Indeed, the last place for oil production is Africa and all major consumers of oil will move away from depending on oil and descend on Africa to deplete what we have and in the final analysis, two or three centuries from today, we will have nothing called oil to depend on. So, we must prepare for the future. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, so, I really find it very painful to see the sugar industry being run down deliberately by past governments and in spite of the commitments by the Minister to turn around this industry, even now this industry is being run down. If you look at yesterday's report in The Standard, page 15, there is a story entitled \"Sugar Levy Collection Surpasses Target\". It goes on to say and I quote: \"The Kenya Sugar Board (KSB) had a target of Kshs1.2 billion to collect from the sugar levy in the year 2004 but they collected Kshs1.5 billion\". The question is: Where did this Kshs1.5 billion go? Was it really used to modernise the sugar factories? If you look at the sugar factories and especially Nzoia Sugar Factory, you will find that it is riddled with debts; debts which were incurred through corruption by Kenyan bureaucrats and an American company called Arkel International which we investigated when I was Chairman of the Public Investments Committee (PIC). Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at Miwani Sugar Factory, you will find that it is mired in a legal quagmire which is \"fertilised\" by corruption. We have seen the courts being used in this country - injunction after injunction. This injunction myopia and mania is killing the economy of this country. So you find that a factory cannot perform because some corrupt fellow has gone to court and obtained an injunction for something not to be done and that thing is not done for ten years when the land is lying idle, people are unemployed, the factory is idle and some godamn receivers are there earning money everyday; receiving nothing but corrupt money. We must stop this culture of receivers, injunctions and so on and get this country moving towards April 19, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 533 development. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at Chemelil Sugar Factory, it is trapped in capital deficiency. There is fertile land, there are people working hard to deliver cane, there is a factory which was well built but it cannot properly be maintained because there is no capital to run it and yet the KSB collects Kshs1.5 billion every year and more. When we did the survey in the year 2002, we found that the KSB, since it was established, had collected Kshs12 billion which should have been pumped into the sugar industry but there is nothing to show for it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at Muhoroni Sugar Factory, it is struggling to get out of debt but it needs capital. If the Sugar Development Fund was established to run and invest in the factories, there is very little to show for it. So, when the hon. Oparanya moves that these taxes be removed so that the money goes directly as capital to the farmers he is correct. The money should go directly as capital to the farmers and the factories so that we can compete with Brazil in sugar production. If you look at Brazil today, it is now almost 50 per cent dependent on power alcohol for its motor vehicles and this is from sugar. So many products are being produced from sugar. The only two sugar factories in this country which are now trying to use molasses for the production of industrial alcohol and so on are only the Molasses Factory in Kisumu and the Food Agro-Chemical Factory in Muhoroni. Even Food Agro-Chemical Factory is weighed down by taxes. It cannot move!"
}