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"id": 46994,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Pesa",
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"legal_name": "John Dache Pesa",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I rise to second this important Motion. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Motion, as my Chairman has ably put it, has taken a lot of time before it came to the Floor of this House. I want to thank him and our team for the good work that we have done. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Motion before us here took us to travel the entire Republic of Kenya, especially in western Kenya, where we grow sugarcane and, of course, at the Coast. We heard a lot of people, the stakeholders, who are actually involved in sugarcane growing. We heard very sad observations during that time. As I continue talking, I want to declare my interest under Standing Order No. 81; that I am a sugarcane farmer under Sony and when I talk here, I am talking on behalf of other farmers as well. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have a lot of problems in this sector. It is not only this sector, that we have a problem in this country, but in the entire agriculture sector. For example, when we talk about maize, which is what is feeding Kenyans, we have had a lot of problems and even now, we have problems. Come to other crops that we grow and we have problems every other year. I think it is only in the dairy sector where, occasionally because of rain, we have had to produce excess milk. But in all others, we have not been able to produce what Kenyans actually deserve for feeding Kenyans, who actually depend on this. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, what problems did we get when we travelled around this country which we are asking this House to help us change, if possible? We have, in the case of Sony, where in 1978, land was bought at Kshs90. If you look at the cost of land in that place at the moment, it is almost Kshs50,000 to Kshs100,000 per acre. The farmers gave their land to the factory at Kshs90 at that time. We are now talking about selling the factories. Are we going to consider those farmers who gave out their farms more or less for free when we sell the sugar mills? This is one area that we must look into when we sell our mills in the future. We have what the Chairman has talked about here; taxation, in the sugar industry. Our farmers are taxed very highly. They are taxed 27 per cent, which is really"
}