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{
    "id": 47451,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/47451/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 333,
    "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, I will go to another more serious problem – the burnt cane. Why does cane get burnt? It is a desperate measure. It is because the farmer sits there for 18 months and he cannot harvest. Arsonists now come either by accident or design and again you end up having the problem. That one, again, we shall deal with it in greater detail. We are looking at that. Please, look at our detailed outlook, hon. Ministers who are here in this Government. Spare time with your personal assistant to look through the HANSARD of the public hearing that we conducted. Check the audio and video of those farmers. Look at their faces and you will see, from where you sit, that you can make a difference by adjusting yourselves in terms of policy so that you do not have to come and punish this farmer with over-supply of inputs. What happens is this: A poor farmer who cannot afford inputs is supplied with inputs which are normally twice or thrice what they will require in capacity. He is not allowed to say no. He is charged interest for what he cannot resell. So, from the start, he has lost. He is given the inputs. Once the poor farmer has harvested the cane, he or she cannot also charge interest on the factory in terms of the cane. So, interest is only chargeable one way on the inputs. So, in this Report and in subsequent amendment of the Act which we shall discuss, we are looking strictly at the handling of those inputs so that, Kenya Sugar Board (KSB) and any other organization which is civilized enough to understand that you do not have to come and sell like they were doing--- Thank you, Minister for Agriculture. When you were selling your fertilizer at Kshs2,200, Mumias Sugar factory was proudly selling theirs at Kshs6,000 per bag. You sell at Kshs6,000 per bag and then you over-supply. What happens at the end? Nearly all farmers will get debits. They call it dibit in that area and dibit is just simply where you do farming for your three to five acres and at the end of the time, you have to go and pay because you already owe more than you have produced after waiting for 18 months. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, what is even more scaring is the way it was designed; it was crop 100 per cent. That means they do not have food and they are faced with food challenges. They do not have school fees. They have nothing. It is subjecting a whole population to absolute poverty and we cannot allow this. No one would. We cannot sit down here to watch and make a few people – five to six Kenyans, get super rich at the expense of millions of Kenyans who have faithfully continued to work in those factories."
}