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{
    "id": 46991,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/46991/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 289,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mututho",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 97,
        "legal_name": "John Michael Njenga Mututho",
        "slug": "john-mututho"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the best painting is that one you find in Kisumu Airport VIP Lounge. I would invite the Prime Minister, the Vice-President, the Ministers who use that airport and everybody else; next time you go to the VIP Lounge, just look at the wall to your right and see an ideal situation. This is a simple tractor. You are harvesting cane and loading simultaneously and then you deliver. There is no provision of those monstrous tractors that end up just messing up the farmers’ pockets! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have found transportation of cane riddled by corruption. There is something they call there “helicopter harvesting.” Just like a helicopter, it hops from one point to another and to another, depending on how much kickback you are able to give. By the time you get to Trans Mara, for you to invite the helicopter, you need to give about Kshs10, 000. However, it can be as low as Kshs2, 000 per farm. Those are some of the issues that the Committee came by. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, looking at the Sugar Act, 2001, and looking at the specific provision that all sugar should be weighed at the farm gate, we now came with a conclusion that the immediate effects, subject to your approval, hon. Members, we shall not allow the millers to own any weigh bridges. This issue of 30 per cent theft and this issue of cheating and stealing as you transport the cane will be the thing of the past. There are some people who actually sell a lot of cane, but they do not have any farms. They only collect the stuff that is dropped by the roadside and they are still farmers! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have gone through the highlights of this Report. The public hearings started in 2009 and it has taken over one year, met thousands and hundreds of people and we want to thank them for their honesty. We want to really apologize to them for this long, long delay, because at this rate, then they need ten parliaments to solve their problems. They listened to us; they were there promptly and they gave us all. We got all the original invoices. We saw the demonstration and we saw the poverty in its reality generated by this. I want to thank the parliamentary staff who were with us. I would like also to thank the civil servants, of course, who have also been around all the time and who also helped us get critical information on that particular end. I also want to thank the hon. Members from the area who assisted us with information when we required it the most."
}