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{
    "id": 252960,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/252960/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 196,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Oniang'o",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 363,
        "legal_name": "Ruth Khasaya Oniang'o",
        "slug": "ruth-oniango"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this April 19, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 537 chance. First of all, let me start my contribution by thanking my M.P., Mr. Oparanya, for bringing this Motion before the House. This Motion would not be necessary if the Minister for Agriculture had done his job. I brought the Sugar Act (Amendment) Bill, 2001 before this House to amend the Sugar Act so that it benefits the farmers. Through negotiation, I handed over the Bill to the Minister because its implications were such that I, as a Private Member, could not implement it. I keep on talking to the Minister for Agriculture every time he comes to the House and he keeps on assuring me that he will address the matter. The Minister for Agriculture, like other hon. Members have said, is my good friend. He is lucky to still have friends in this House, unlike some of his friends and colleagues. I hope that he will still be the Minister for Agriculture in 2007. By that time, he would have done something about the sugar industry. I took over that matter when I first came to this House because the sugar industry was riddled with so many problems that affected the farmers. I am a sugar-cane farmer but I do not depend on the crop. However, I live among so many sugar-cane farmers who depend on it. I have seen them become poorer over the years. Right now, sugar-cane farmers are some of the poorest people in this country. Why is this so? It is because this Government makes money out of the farmers. It fleeces the farmers who have given up most of their productive land to sugar-cane growing. If you visit those farmers, you will realise that they do not even want to discuss the issue because they do not understand what COMESA is. However, for those of us who are here and represent them, including the Minister for Agriculture and the Minister for Trade and Industry, we know what COMESA is. I do not understand why sugar-cane farmers all over the country are treated like a dejected child in the agricultural sector. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at the Mwea Rice Scheme, you will realise that the rice farmers refused to be abused any more. Those farmers have taken over the marketing of their crop. However, we are dealing with a docile community of sugar-cane farmers who cannot even rebel against the over-taxation by the Government. The Government owns most of the shares and it has the sugar industries on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and yet our farmers do not know anything about it. Imports are being made into the country; we want to sustain the sugar industry at the expense of the farmers. This is not acceptable and is scandalous. I hope that all the issues that we have raised, and continue to raise, will finally be addressed by the relevant Ministries and Ministers. This is because there is nothing that we have raised here that is new. It is all in the HANSARD. We have more than six million Kenyans whose livelihoods will be threatened because of the removal of the COMESA safeguards in 2008. Only one year will be left in February, 2007, before those safeguards are removed. If we go on schedule, 2007 will be an election year and nobody will talk about the sugar-cane farmers. I have not seen the Bill on schedule, and yet the good Minister is here. I continue calling the Minister for Agriculture \"my good friend\" and he knows that. However, he will not continue being my good friend if he will not address the plight of sugar-cane farmers."
}