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{
    "id": 37014,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/37014/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 290,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Okemo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 198,
        "legal_name": "Chrysanthus Barnabas Okemo",
        "slug": "chrysanthus-okemo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for being hard on me, but being extremely kind towards the end. Mr. Deputy Speaker Sir, I wish to stand up to request a Ministerial Statement from the Minister for Agriculture. Mumias Sugar Company (MSC) claim it is owed over Kshs100 million by Busia Sugar Company (BSC) Limited. Because of that, they approached the Kenya Sugar Board (KSB) to take over the loan. The KSB agreed that they were going to pay that loan. However, before they did so, they needed to do an audit on the books of MSC to ascertain that the amount of money they were asking for was correct. In the meantime, MSC have actually gone to the High Court and they have sought orders to sell a parcel of land belonging to BSC which order they have already been granted. This morning, we learnt from the Ministry of Agriculture and from the KSB that they were not aware of this action by MSC which is a very strange action because the KSB had undertaken to repay the loan. However, despite that undertaking, they went to the high court and received the orders. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the process of auditing the MSC books to ascertain the correct figure that was owed, MSC were actually fiddling with their books and they were trying to ask for more money than is owed to them. That, probably, explains why they had to go to the high court. If they were going to be repaid the loan, what was the necessity for going to the high court? So, I would like the Minister for Agriculture to come and clarify the question of the ownership of the parcel of land which the high court has ordered to be sold by private treaty. That piece of land is owned by BSC in which the Kenya Government has a shareholding. The only reason why the Kenya Government has a share in the BSC is to protect the public interest. The public interest means all those farmers in the Busia Sugar zone who supply a large quantity of sugar cane to MSC to make it viable and to make it continue to operate. This is an act of bad faith. We are prepared to go and tell the farmers to withhold all cane to MSC if they act in that bad faith because that piece of land was reserved for the construction of a sugar factory and the Government was making plans. You even heard the Prime Minister stand before this House and say that there was an investor who was coming---"
}