Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 319144,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/319144/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 379,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": ". The molasses is still sold, and it generates income for the sugar factories. I also want to urge the Minister to harmonise the operations that hon. Bony Khalwale has been talking about. I have seen in my county, some hired hoodlums setting on fire trucks carrying sugar-cane and assaulting innocent drivers very viciously. There can be a better way of handling these things. If there is an illegal harvest of cane, we now have a tribunal which should handle and adjudicate on such disputes. I want the Minister, during the Committee Stage of this Bill, to obligate the tribunal to determine any dispute going before it within not more than 30 days. If we do not have a timeline, we will just end up with the same mess we have with the courts, where you go to court with an emergency and get judgment five years later. For example, a director of the Kenya Sugar Board was elected in Bungoma, and his competitors challenged his election. The matter has been pending before court for the last three years. The man cannot sit on the board. The zone is unrepresented in the board. The court is in no hurry to give a determination to the matter. Therefore, I would wish that the tribunal is obligated to conclude any dispute going before it, within 30 days, so that any aggrieved party can proceed to the High Court. I hope the High Court will also see the urgency of determining such disputes, so that farmers are not held in limbo over disputes. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I now want to refer to Clause 5 of the Bill. Sometimes I get concerned. This obsession about degrees in this country sometimes disposes groups of people the right to be led by people they want. I once said that if a group of fishermen on the shows of Lake Victoria want to elect one of their own to represent them at whatever level, so be it. We are saying that to stand as a candidate to be elected to sit in the Sugar Board you must be a sugar-cane farmer. You cannot then say that to stand to be elected as member of the board you must hold a degree. That is like saying that every sugar-cane famer must hold a degree. I want to urge the Minister to delete this provision from the Bill. If farmers are going to elect themselves to the board,"
}