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{
"id": 32951,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/32951/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Kosgei",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Agriculture",
"speaker": {
"id": 13,
"legal_name": "Lucas Kipkosgei Chepkitony",
"slug": "lucas-chepkitony"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Mr. Okemo needs a clarification on who said they would pay and so on. Let me say from the outset that his aim is the same as that of the Ministry. We must not allow people to descend to more poverty. If the land is theirs, they must not be deprived of that land. I would have liked to come here and say categorically that we can do this today or tomorrow. However, as the hon. Member is aware, we do not have a sugar board right now because the elections took place and we were taken to court because women were not elected. We are trying to find out how to take care of that. I need the board to sit to authorize what we, as a House and the Ministry, are asking for. I do not want to take a unilateral decision. However, if the board is not available for a long time then we will have to do so. I would like Mr. Okemo to work with me because I think what he is trying to do is a duplication of what we are doing. We do not want the farmers to lose their land for nothing. As for the building of another factory, at the moment, we are in a very bad place. The hon. Member is the chairman of the Committee that does privatization. There was an effort to privatise various sugar companies in this country, but as we are aware, the board has not been able to meet. That is not under the Ministry of Agriculture. Nevertheless, if it is not going ahead, we have to work on getting an investor or ask the Government to avail funds for the construction of this factory. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to the future of the land, in my view and that of the Ministry of Agriculture, the land should go back to the people who owned it from the beginning. So, we are not in contradiction. What I want to do is not to work on the rumours that I have picked. I want to make sure that, first of all, the land has not been transferred. Even if it has been transferred, it can still be re-transferred. This is what we are working on. I have sent numerous people since I got the information last week to check in courts in Bungoma, but there is nothing of that sort. However, the rumours are that somebody may have transferred. I am using the Government machinery to ensure that this land is not transferred, so that we can sort out the debt of Mumias and Busia. That to me is a very different matter from that of the land. We should separate the two and clearly understand that the land belongs to the people. As for coffee and sugar-cane farmers, this is an issue which has now come to us as a problem for Busia. We are trying to handle it in the best way possible for the people there. Any other problems in the sugar industry, we have tried to get new directors, so that they can, probably, be more revolutionary or active in trying to help to do something in this industry. But as I said, that matter is in the court. We want to follow the regulations which are laid out. However, I sympathize and I hear you that sugar-cane, pyrethrum and sisal farmers, just like farmers of other crops deserve assistance. That is what I hope I can give. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir."
}