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{
    "id": 521111,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/521111/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 165,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Opiyo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1174,
        "legal_name": "Jared Odhiambo Opiyo",
        "slug": "jared-odhiambo-opiyo"
    },
    "content": "Even if we had to privatize, what we would want to sell are basically the machinery and the lands on which the machineries stands and not the land that is occupied by nucleus. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, my feel of this is: Let the land that the industries used to use as nucleus be revalued and given to the county governments to hold as community land in trust for the people of those regions, if we do not want to bring confusion. Another approach that we could take would be, for instance, to work on an asset transfer mechanism so that the 49 per cent shareholding that the Government wants to keep in its warehouse could be held by the county governments in trust for the people. We do not want to make a mistake because we have learnt from the case of Mumias Sugar Company which was sold without much consultation and right now, it has gone down the drain. We do not want a cartel of business people to simply buy into our sugar factories then probably midway, change their minds that they do not want to produce sugar. They change to groundnut or probably maize production and then leave our farmers with their crops with nowhere to take it. I strongly feel that if this Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade is really genuine that they want to help the people of Kenya, the best thing they can do is for us to caucus again and agree to give ourselves a timeline of maybe one year or two years to, first of all, revive those sugar companies so that they are profitable again. We do not want a situation where we want to sell our factories at a throwaway price just because they are not profit-making as of now. I really think that the hon. Speaker will give Members of Parliament who belong to the sugar caucus group to ventilate on this matter because they have things that they feel so passionate about that they must, at least, ventilate before this matter is concluded. Thank you. 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."
}