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{
    "id": 520240,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/520240/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 248,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Simiyu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 141,
        "legal_name": "David Eseli Simiyu",
        "slug": "david-eseli"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker, for giving me this chance to also contribute to this very important Motion. This Motion speaks to the sustainability of Kenya as a sugar producing country. From the outset, I want to say that successive governments have neglected the sugar sector and the sugarcane growers in this country. I say so because the 10th Parliament, for example, passed a resolution for the debts of those sugar companies to be written off. Up to now, they have not been written off. The debts are still being recommended to be written off by this Report, ignoring what the last Parliament had resolved. The other reason as to why I say that the successive governments have not taken the sugar industry seriously is that we continue being told about COMESA. I dare say that COMESA is only but a bogeyman because there is only one COMESA country which produces surplus sugar; namely, Sudan. All the other COMESA countries do not produce surplus sugar to sell to Kenya. It is the Government that has allowed business people with briefcases to import sugar and purport that it is from Malawi, Egypt and other COMESA countries. I feel that the non- profitability of the Government-owned sugar industry in Kenya is because we have allowed those cheap imports which do not originate from COMESA countries. We have, therefore, failed to follow and enforce the law so that we get the origin of the sugar that keeps on being imported into Kenya. It is a fact that, that sugar involves a lot of money which has gone into many pockets. I dare say that a lot of that money is what has oiled the wheels of politics in this country. Many beneficiaries of that illicit gotten wealth who have sort of brought down the sugar industry in Kenya are known prominent people of this country and yet, there is no action that has been taken against them. That is why I insist that the Government has neglected the sugar industry in this country to the detriment of sugarcane growers. Hon. Speaker, there are many ways of privatising. We all know that privatisation is the best way to go. Private industries succeed better than Government-owned industries. We are fully aware of that and we do not want to be told it over and over again. However, there was a reason why those sugar companies were set up. It was at a time when Kenya was starting to grow as an economy in the world. In the process of setting up those companies, the Government compulsorily acquired land from the communities in order to create the nuclear estates. Take a case of Nzoia Sugar Company (NSC) which has got the biggest nuclear estate of all the sugar factories in this country. If you just take the case of that estate’s land alone, you will find that it is worth Kshs9 billion. Valuing NSC’s land at Kshs6 billion is therefore a mistake and if I was a smart businessman, I would take a loan of Kshs6 billion, buy that NSC at Kshs6 billion and sell the land at Kshs9 billion. That way, I would walk away with Kshs3 billion as profit and forget about the sugar issue we are talking about here. All of us have agreed that the issue of privatisation of those sugar mills is important. However, the modalities which are very important need to be looked further. If you choose to sell your second-hand car with one bent rim and a puncture, you will fetch less money than if you straightened the rim and repaired the puncture. This is a situation where we want to sell the family’s China-like plates, spoons and whatever, which we are The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}