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{
    "id": 318340,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/318340/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 492,
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    "content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, another area that I would also like the Minister to look at is the way they dictate to farmers on who transports cane. You will find that the management of the Mumias Sugar Company, for example, is the one that appoints the transporters. The farmer has no say in who should transport his cane. When there is a problem on the way as the cane is being transported, then it is the farmer who pays for the problem. I would still want to insist that Clause 30 be re-introduced in the Bill, so that the farmer would have a say, for example, in the issue of appointments. Today, we have eight top managers of the Mumias Sugar Company and none of them is a son or a daughter of a sugar cane farmer. All of them come from outside the region. I am not saying that all of them must be locals, but we have never got any explanation why the sons and daughters of sugar cane farmers cannot manage the sugar factories. For example, the Head of Marketing and Sales Department comes from the same place with the Head of Computers. Again, they have appointed a finance director. This is a case of the Investment Secretary using Government shareholding. She has been dictating to the board as to who should hold a senior position in the factory. This is an area that I would want us to look at critically. It is important that we re-introduce this Clause 30 because it is the only clause that will guarantee farmers a right to the affairs of the sugar factory. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, talking about the cane pricing Committee, the Minister was very careful because on one hand, she has removed the Kenya Sugarcane Growers Association (KSGA). The Kenya Sugarcane Growers Association is the body that was representing farmers on the Committee that was determining the formula of sugar cane prices. According to this amendment, the Kenya Sugarcane Growers Association has been removed under Clause 2(b). In Clause 22(c), she has put growers and millers to be part of the cane pricing committee. If the Kenya Sugarcane Growers Association has been removed, how does she want to deal with the growers? We are talking of hundreds of thousands of growers. How does she intend to include them if they do not have a particular body that will address the issue of pricing? There is the aspect of removing the Kenya Sugar Manufacturers Association. That is okay. I have no problem with that. I agree with putting the Sugar Development Fund under the Board of Trustee. Many times, this money has been misused, especially when it comes to money that goes to the sugar cane growing zones to improve on the road network. Generally, I appreciate the fact that, eventually, this Bill has come to the Floor of the House, but I am afraid that the way this Sugar (Amendment) Bill has been drafted, if it went through the way it is, then the sugar cane farmers in this country stand to lose immensely because they have completely been cut out of what is happening in the sugar sector. I beg to end there, but during the Committee Stage, I intend to introduce some amendments that will take care of the sugar cane farmers."
}