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"content": "sector including you and I started buying its shares in the Stock Exchange. That is the direction that we would like the sugar factories to go. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as hon. Wetangula said, privatization simply means that assets of a public firm are sold to the private sector, either to large capital or private capital of different sizes. One of things that we must remember is that when we say that we are going to sell shares to farmers, workers and the public, we are selling shares to small capital because the farmer is investing in the factory, not because he loves investing for its sake, but because he is also looking for profit. Every investment in a capitalist firm is for profit making. Therefore, one should not fear the fact that somebody comes in and buys 15 per cent to put more capital into the factory. The more capital you put, the bigger the possibility that production will go high. If the firm is managed efficiently then productivity will improve. Therefore, you have expansion of an economy. So, what the Government is doing is saying: “Look, let us put money into these sugar farms, so that they can be revived and there can be more productivity.” With efficient management, more profit will be made and more money earned from these sugar factories, not just by the private capital putting in 51 per cent, but all other small capitalists like farmers, workers and so on, who will eventually buy the shares in the Stock Exchange. It is very illogical that people think that when you see a figure like 51 per cent going to the private sector, you are selling off the household equipment or goods to somebody who is foreign. You are just injecting more capital into the company. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, when I sponsored the Privatization Bill in this House, which was eventually taken over by the Attorney General, I did it because at that point in time, people were very afraid of the word “privatization.” Privatization needed to be put into law, so that people knew that the only way to deal with the crisis of the 1990s when public corporations collapsed was for capital to be injected into them, so that they could be revived. That capital could not come from the Government itself, because it was closely in debt. Indeed, even donors then and people giving aid were shunning the Kenya State like a leper. That process of privatization has worked reasonably well in our nation, except in a few cases. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am, therefore, making a very strong case that the firms called Miwani, Chemelil, Muhoroni, SONY and Nzoia sugar companies should be privatized, but responsibly, as hon. Wetangula said. Let me give you a very sad case. When I was Chairman of the Public Investments Committee (PIC) in this House in the mid 1990s, we did study the sad state of Nzoia Sugar Company. It acquired equipment and got a loan from some American firm called Arkel which supplied them with equipment. They brought tractors which could not run on roads in Nzoia at all. They ended up being parked in the yards of Nzoia Sugar Factory. We pursued this case, which was a case of rent seeking and corruption, up to the International Court of Settlement. Unfortunately, a Kenyan who had been working at Nzoia as the Chief Executive Officer turned out now to be a witness to the same company that we were suing. In the end, we lost the case and the Attorney General had to pay this company which had looted our own nation US$5 million. That was a very sad case. So, Nzoia is one of the companies which has landed the Ministry of Finance heavy debts because of irresponsibility, corruption and rent seeking. That is now water under the bridge. What we need now is to revive our"
}