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{
    "id": 319167,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/319167/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 402,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Olweny",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Education",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 122,
        "legal_name": "Patrick Ayiecho Olweny",
        "slug": "patrick-olweny"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am very much in order because the receiver manager from Muhoroni Sugar Company is the one running that company. That is the same receiver manager who is holding the moribund Miwani Sugar Company. They are joint receivers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when you look at the zones, that is one way of impoverishing farmers. The sugar-cane farmer is the poorest person in the sugar industry. Today, the price of cane is fluctuating with the price of sugar. When the price of sugar goes up, the cane price is raised a little. When the price of sugar comes down a little, then the price of sugar-cane comes down substantially, yet the prices of inputs remain the same. The prices of fertilizers do not change. The cost of labour and transport remain the same. So, the farmer’s margin is the one that is reduced every time there is a fluctuation. So, I really do not know how this should be handled. Maybe the Minister may think about it because the prices of inputs remain the same or are increased, while the price of sugar-cane is fluctuating when there is little fluctuation in the price of sugar. Over the weekend I was with some farmers and they raised concern about that. I told them that it is the implementation of the Sugar Act, but then they asked me: “Okay, we are implementing the Sugar Act, but what about the price of inputs?” They remain the same and so, their profit margin is always reduced. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when farmer’s sugar-cane burn he or she is penalized by the miller. Farmers do not burn their cane. It is some mischievous people who always go round burning farmers’ sugar-cane. I am a sugar-cane farmer and have suffered. Even in the middle of the night, the sugar-cane burns. Which farmer will go out in the middle of the night to burn his or her cane? They are always penalized. On the other hand, sometimes when the miller goes to harvest farmers’ cane, they burn that cane themselves. Why should they punish the farmer, if by accident the can burns, and yet on the other hand, they also burn the farmers’ cane, without now penalizing anybody? I think that this needs to be addressed by the Kenya Sugar Board and the Ministry of Agriculture. Let us ask these millers: “Why must you penalize the farmer for burnt cane?” It is very unfair. Farmers get very little out of their cane. This is one thing which I hope the Minister will raise in the sugar industry. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, during the last KSB elections, some ladies went to court because in those elections we did not have any woman elected by the farmers. There were one or two women who contested, but the farmers rejected them. They went to court and stopped the Minister from gazetting the Sugar Board for almost a year. Last week, I talked to the Minister and she told me that she got a way out of it through the court. The court gave her an opportunity to nominate some women. Actually, the Government representatives in the KSB are women. But then, why can we not put it"
}