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{
    "id": 252963,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/252963/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 199,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Bifwoli",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 208,
        "legal_name": "Sylvester Wakoli Bifwoli",
        "slug": "wakoli-bifwoli"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to start by declaring that I support this Motion, because it is a very important one and is overdue. The Minister for Agriculture is here, and I think his ears are open. The sugar industry in this country is going to collapse the way the cotton industry collapsed. You can remember that, when the Ministry of Trade and Industry allowed mitumba clothes to be imported into this country, the cotton industry collapsed. Those importing mitumba clothes were sons and daughters of well-connected people. They ran down the cotton industry. The only industry that Kenyans depend on now is the sugar industry. The sugar industry is the nerve centre of this country. Most Kenyans depend on sugar-cane farming, but do so at a loss. My question is: Why should the Government prioritise helping the coffee industry and not the sugar industry? You can also see that milk production is not taxed the way sugar production is! Is this because milk is found in the \"right\" parts of this country and sugar- cane is grown in the \"wrong\" parts of this country? Is this why we are subjected to suffering year in, year out? Mr. Minister, you are our neighbour. If you do not want your neighbour to steal from you, you should give him the facilities that he requires. I would like to propose that the sugar-cane farmers should be helped the way maize farmers are being helped. How are they going to be helped? Sugar factories should be allowed to plough farms at subsidised costs, or without taxes. The Government should allow farmers to purchase fertilisers at subsidised prices, or without taxes. These are the measures the Government should adopt to help sugar-cane farmers in this country. How can we fight poverty when we are over-taxing our farmers, who are the majority in this country? In Nyanza Province, residents rely purely on sugar-cane and fish farming. Now that fish production has been taken over by people from other parts of this country, we are left with only sugar-cane farming. In Western Province, there is no way this Government can help farmers without improving sugar-cane farming. I would also like to propose that the Government should assist sugar factories to purchase tractors. Sugar-cane should be transported from farms to factories at the expense of the factories. Some of the people working in sugar factories do not know how sugar-cane tastes. For some of us, sugar-cane scratches our bodies and those of our wives, and our bodies resemble the body of a mule. Workers in sugar factories have very smooth bodies, because they buy oil at our expense. We should be helped so that we also look like our fellow human beings."
}