HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 252984,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/252984/?format=api",
"text_counter": 220,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kajwang",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 164,
"legal_name": "Gerald Otieno Kajwang",
"slug": "otieno-kajwang"
},
"content": "The countries that have gone the alcohol power way, like Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o was speaking about, are the people who are making it in the sugar industry. Brazil has gone that way deliberately. If you are buying your barrel of oil at US$86, unless you do something about it, you are going to collapse anyway. All the other industries will collapse, because they rely on the price of fuel. I was reading an article the other day which said that Americans are going to crush their own maize to produce power alcohol so that they can blend their fuel to reduce the price of fuel. They will grind their maize and we will not have maize being given to us as relief food any more. They have realised that they cannot cope with the price of 86 Dollars per barrel, which is still increasing. China and India are buying most of it because they are expanding economies. If Brazil and Cuba decide to go the power-alcohol way, sugar will become a by-product and we will make enough money from power-alcohol, such that we could even throw the sugar away. That is what we must do. Recently, I was reading an article by Mumias Sugar Company when it was publishing its profits. In the article, somebody had asked the Managing Director why he was not producing power-alcohol. He answered that the law does not allow him. I was looking through books in the library recently, to see which law stops Mumias and all other factories from producing power- alcohol. I found out that the companies were all incorporated to produce white sugar. Beyond that, they are not supposed to produce anything else that can bring them profits. In this country, at one time, we used to mix power-alcohol with fuel, and we used to call it gasohol. First of all, it was clean, and secondly, it was cheap to produce. Of course, the multinationals refused its use, but they have now come back saying that the price of fuel is so high that they need to supplement it with power-alcohol and blend their fuel. This is the time that Kenya can become like Saudi Arabia. We can produce enough sugar-cane and, therefore, produce power- alcohol to blend our fuel. We can also export it because the market is so enormous that we cannot satisfy it. We have the best climate. We can irrigate the crop and make money. That is our strength. Mr. Minister, think about that. Inform the Cabinet that we can now go the alcohol-power route. That is how Kenya will survive. We cannot purport to be waiting to compete with the COMESA, yet our factories are insolvent. Let us put money into them; of course, it is not a lot of money. You saw how much money you wasted on the Anglo Leasing scandal. It could liberate the whole of western Kenya in regard to the sugar sector. We will have a virtuous circle of growth if power-alcohol is highly priced, and make enough income. That way, our farmers will be happier and the people who support farmers in terms of equipment will also be happier. The standard of living will also have gone up. Everybody in this country will also be happy. If we go the sugar route to protect our industries from COMESA, of course we will collapse. We do not have an advantage in producing white sugar, rather we have an advantage in producing power alcohol and white sugar as a by-product. Let me give you another example. We now have only two factories producing power alcohol in this country, but they do not even have enough raw materials. They do not have enough molasses, but they can actually use sugar-cane juice to produce power alcohol directly. If you go to Awendo Sugar Belt where hon. Ochilo-Ayacko comes from, he is already crying that sugar-cane is not being harvested. Everybody who comes from the sugar belt areas is saying: \"Our sugar-cane is not being harvested because it cannot be crushed.\" Why do you not increase the crushing capacity and sell the excess juice to factories which produce alcohol? The 542 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 19, 2006 farmer, and Kenya in general, will be happy. These are very simple things to do and they will make everybody happy. With regard to taxation on the same alcohol, if you go to Muhoroni you will be told a lot. The tax on power alcohol from Muhoroni is 200 per cent. I have never heard of that kind of a tax. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those remarks, I beg to support."
}