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{
    "id": 349925,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/349925/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 672,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Trade",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, to some of us sugar growing is like camels to you where you come from. I represent sugar farmers. In seconding this Motion and supporting it fully, I know the pain that farmers in the sugar sector have gone through in this country. Some of the good reasons that my learned friend has given are valid; some are excuses but we must make a decision. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have always operated under the nightmare of COMESA sugar. Our sugar factories are owned by the Government. The Government is presumed to be inefficient. They borrowed money that has quadrupled on interest. They have been mismanaged and so on. We also know that the largest single sugar factory in Africa that produces and sells sugar to Kenya, and that scares other sugar factories in Sudan is Government- owned, Kenana. It is a massive factory, efficiently run and is owned by the Government. So, I want to urge Parliament to agree to this, because this is not the first time this Parliament is approving writing off of loans. We did so with the Kenya Airways in the early 1990s. We did so with the AFC, although in AFC actually it was scandalous because we wrote off loans that benefitted individuals. We wrote off loans with the fomer Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation before privatisation. I want to urge that after writing off these loans, the process of privatising Chemelil, Muhoroni, SONY and Nzoia sugar companies should be done a little carefully and differently from the reckless manner in which Mumias Sugar was privatised. you have the factories, you have massive arable land that must go back to the counties where these factories are based, so that whoever will buy the mill then can lease that land from the counties to generate income for the counties. That is why this process must be looked through very carefully. In the case of Mumias, for example, the privatisation was done regardless of the land that the people of Mumias had surrendered to the Government to build the plant. So, those who took the factory took it plus the land, but without taking into account the valuing of the land. We want the parcels of land for SONY, Nzoia and Miwani sugar companies to go to the counties where they are based. Secondly, as a country, we also must decide what we want to do with the sugar sector. It does not add up for Kenya sugar production sector to be scared of sugar from Swaziland and Malawi, yet these countries’ levels of development and economies are much smaller and less developed than our own. There must be something wrong somewhere. I think the reasons the Minister has advanced if addressed and factories are given clean balance sheets--- If they want to go and borrow commercially to run the enterprise, they must do so. They must also learn how to maximize the use of production in the sugar industry. There is co-generation that Mumias is doing; none of the others is doing it. There is production of drinking water that Mumias is doing; none of the others is doing it. There is flawed procurement of spares and so on. Then, there is inadequate supervision, I believe, from the sector itself and the overall players in the sector. I want to"
}