Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 319130,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/319130/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 365,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "cannot at this point, 50 years after Independence, make a deliberate move to construct a fertilizer producing factory. There is the issue of the young men who cut cane. This law should be strict and know that we have critical players called “cane cutters”. These young men lead pathetic lives and yet without them cutting the cane, there would be no sugar on the tables of the rich people in this country. It is a shame that if you go to Mumias Sugar Company, you will find that the young people who weed cane are paid in terms of cents. Can you imagine Kenyans are being paid 30 cents to 70 cents per meter for weeding and somebody slugs out like a slave to increase the number of cents that they will be paid? The level of poverty in that area, in spite of it producing sugar, is unimaginable. We also have the drivers who drive the trucks and tractors. It is important that the Minister responds to the plight of these young people because they are critical players. I want to speak on the issue of the Sugar Development Levy (SDL). The Minister must try and craft it into this law so that it is clear that the more SDL a particular factory produces, the returns that are brought to the factory should reflect how much that factory collected. It is very unfortunate that Mumias and Nzoia Sugar companies have been contributing billions of shillings towards the SDL. However, if you look at what they reap from the SDL Fund, you will realize that it is not comparable to what the smaller factories contribute. On the issue of transport, it is killing farmers. If the Minister will not address the issue of transport, then forget it. Farmers will never have their lives improved. Let me give you an example. Butali Sugar Company, and you know the long story of this company, these days buys cane from as far as Shinyalu, Malinya and Mutaho in Ikolomani. When they cut cane – and by the way two days ago, they cut my neighbour’s cane in Malinya – they charged that farmer Kshs390 per tonne. From Malinya to Butali Sugar Company is, in fact, over 40 kilometers. Mumias Sugar in zone zero where there is no transport because that is the neighbourhood of the company charges farmers Kshs677. I am serious because this is a factual issue. So, Mumias Sugar Company is just ripping off our farmers. We want to see a situation where----"
}