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{
    "id": 319157,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/319157/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 392,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mututho",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 97,
        "legal_name": "John Michael Njenga Mututho",
        "slug": "john-mututho"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I rise to support these amendments and, as I do so, I want to say that, as the Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Cooperatives, we have done one of the most extensive work on the sugar industry and had, indeed, tabled our own Committee Bill. I have had a chance to discuss with the Minister and we will be looking at the two, so that we marry them and then have one Bill at the Committee Stage. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, having said that, I want to give the House a sad history about sugar development and the making of “lords” from sugar. One such story and two most talked about is that during the old bad days of slave trade, the two chief traders in sugar who took Africans as slaves and went on to manage plantations all over America were one by the name of Barclays and the other one was called Leod. The two became so rich but, ultimately, one became a shipper and the other one owned a bank. However, what happened to the Africans who were doing it? They died as slaves and very little is said about their contribution to that welfare. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir the sugar industry in Kenya is not any different. You realize that these poor farmers pay 27 per cent to 29 per cent in all forms of levies and taxes. From their little earnings, they are taxed again that much. It comes in small portions but ultimately the total figure is about 27 per cent. The first point would be to eliminate all these taxes, so that you end up with a manageable percentage like less than 10 per cent. This should apply to all sections, including transport. The most weird of them all is the sugar-cane payment formula. I will not talk badly of anybody who participated in this, but surely when you said that farmers will be paid as per the weight of the cane and the prevailing price of sugar in the market, you seemed to forget the basic fact, which is that the price of sugar in Kenya is controlled by about four people. So, price is not driven by demand and supply. If you take that as a factor, then you are allowing people to control even what the farmers are producing. Everybody knows that sugar-cane is valued due to sugar content. So, you may have 100 kilogrammes of sugar- cane but it is only equivalent to 25 kilogrammes of sugar-cane which has high sucrose. So, the sugar-cane payment formula is defective. I have an issue with it. There is need for revising it to make these farmers earn fairly. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other element is transport. There used to be a very good photograph on the walls of the VIP Lounge in Kisumu. Apparently, it went with the old airport, and I wish it could be traced. It shows a farmer harvesting cane and was able to transport the cane using a simple tractor. That is how it used to be and is how it should be. Now farmers are compelled to use huge monsters. Using those pre- arranged contractors makes them suffer immensely in terms of costs. Therefore, transportation should be liberalized. It is obvious that you need to look at our report; we"
}