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{
    "id": 347120,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/347120/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 356,
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    "content": "In view of the legislation that has been ongoing to try and restructure the sugar sector and in view of the fact that in order to do reasonable privatization, it was proposed that we restructure the debt of the sugar companies. Since this has not been done because it is a prerequisite before privatization that all the debts owed by these companies should, first of all, be written off in order to prepare them and make their balance sheets attractive in order to attract buyers. It is, therefore, recommended by the Committee that as far as the sugar companies are concerned, this should be postponed because this is contained in Sessional Paper No.12 which has yet to be debated and approved by this House. That is the Sessional Paper that contains all the proposals for writing off the debts amounting to almost Kshs41 billion. If this is not done, it will not be sensible to privatize these outfits. It is also felt strongly that the county governments coming into effect soon may have an interest in acquiring shares in some of these sugar factories. Therefore, we felt that this be postponed until the next Parliament by which time the county governments will be in place and they can have an opportunity to participate in these privatizations. Therefore, one of our recommendations is that we postpone the privatization of the five sugar factories that have been proposed. As far as the three hotels are concerned, we feel that this is long overdue because many of them have run down. So, they are not attracting the level and quality of tourists that we would want to have in order to improve tourism proceeds for the Kenyan economy. So, the Government of Kenya (GoK) is not prepared to inject any more money in these hotels in order to maintain its shareholding. This is because if they were to go ahead and modernize these hotels, then this would considerably dilute the shareholding of the GoK. Therefore, it is proposed that we privatize them now and get them now to have the opportunity to inject in more capital to improve them, so that they can offer quality services to tourists coming to Kenya. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as far as KWAL is concerned, it has really been run down. On the other hand KWAL depends heavily on a company called Distell which is a South African Company which basically supplies all its requirements for the manufacture of wine. Therefore, it is believed that if we do not do something about privatization the KWAL at this point and getting into a long term supply arrangement with Distell, the company might wind up because it is has serious cash flow problems, it has been run down and Distell is thinking of changing and entering into a fresh supply agreement with others. So, we propose that KWAL should be privatized and give a chance to Distell among others to be able to acquire shares there so that they can secure the supply of raw materials for the manufacture of wine. I would like to end by requesting this House to approve this Report. I also want to mention that the privatization programme is about three years behind schedule. This is because for a long time, the Privatization Commission had expired. After expiry, it took a long time to form new Privatization Commission which we just approved last month. So, in order to save on time and to ensure that these institutions do not collapse, I would like to seek the approval of this House of the Report by the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade. I would like to request hon. M’Mithiaru to second."
}