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{
    "id": 46995,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/46995/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 293,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Pesa",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 134,
        "legal_name": "John Dache Pesa",
        "slug": "john-pesa"
    },
    "content": "unacceptable. This is one area that we want hon. Members to assist us. We should reduce it as has been proposed in the Act. We want it not to be more than 10 per cent of what is charged throughout the Republic. There is also another element where we are losing a lot of money as farmers. If you go to areas where sugarcane is grown, you will find that most of the sugarcane is dropped during transportation. That is one area we are asking this Parliament to help us change so that, weighing can be done at the gates where the farmers are producing the sugar-cane. In so doing, we will make sure that factories take charge of the transportation and farmers will not lose the way they are losing at the moment. We want weighing to be at the farm yards so that farmers do not lose the way they have been losing. As a farmer, one time, before I came here, I tried to venture in the transport business. This is very frustrating to our people. When you transport sugarcane, the factories do not pay you. They do not also give you the right incentives that can make you buy more tractors that can make you transport more sugar-cane. This is another area where we want the Ministry to look into, and ensure that we have enough tractors in the sugar-cane growing areas, so that farmers can have their cane transported in good time. With regard to the idea of late harvesting, normally, farmers sign contracts with factories. We expect sugarcane to be harvested between 18 and 24 months. However, if you go to Sony today, you will find a lot of sugarcane that has matured and is now about 30 to 40 months in the fields. Students who could have benefitted from money coming from the sugarcane are chased out of school because it is not delivered on time. This is one area that we must do something to assist our farmers, so that harvesting is done in time. If that is not done, then we have to get some explanations. In the case of Sony, I remember Government officials went there, as the Chairman has said, and promised that our mill will be overhauled. Up to today, that mill cannot crash what we grow in that area. That also applies to many other sugar factories that we have in this country. We want the Government to assist our factories, so that we can get more money to ensure that the machines that we have in those areas can mill the sugar-cane that has been grown by farmers in those areas. The Bill will come to Parliament any time now. We will be using the new Constitution. Under the new Constitution, we will be using the county governments. We are talking about the sale of our mills and factories. We must be very careful here because, if we do not protect the local growers in our sugarcane belts, then we will have “outsiders” coming to take over. That will deprive the counties of the right revenue that they can use to develop themselves. Therefore, we feel that in the new Act, at least, 51 per cent of what we will sell should be owned by the local people, including the farmers. That is why I am saying that since farmers gave out their farms for Kshs90 in 1978, we should quantify that and allow him or her to be part and parcel of that factory. That is because without that land, the factory cannot exist, especially in the nuclear areas in the belt."
}