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{
    "id": 521140,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/521140/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 194,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Oyoo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2408,
        "legal_name": "James Onyango Oyoo",
        "slug": "james-onyango-oyoo"
    },
    "content": "wall will fall on 28th February, 2015. I do not know what miracle we are going to perform to complete the privatisation process before that date, which is only two days away. There must be reasons why the sugar industry has not been performing well. One thing that attracted my attention was the suggestion that a giant, Chemelil Sugar Company, be merged with Muhoroni Sugar Company, so that they can be sold as one entity. I took my time to look at the whole document. I will deliberate more on Miwani, Chemelil and Muhoroni sugar companies. When I looked through the document, I saw that Muhoroni Sugar Factory, which is a fully-fledged sugar factory with a lot of employees and a lot of assets; was functioning well with receiver managers appointed by the Kenya Sugar Board but it is valued at below a billion shillings. The reason given is that there was no enough acreage of land and, therefore, it was necessary to merge the two entities into a vibrant sugar factory. I do not believe in that idea. Those who know Muhoroni Sugar Factory and Chemelil Sugar Company know that they have vast tracts of land. We also know that during former President Moi’s regime, political bigwigs were given huge nuclear farms that belonged to Muhoroni, which they are not using properly and which they did not pay for. Why would one undervalue the assets of Muhoroni Sugar Factory when politically-correct people during Moi’s era took away huge tracts of land? That is why we are saying that this is technical. I have looked at the whole thing and I have not come to terms with it. It draws my attention to other fears; I have had some border skirmishes of late, which I cannot come to terms with. In my constituency, we border my friends from Sigowet/Soin. My constituency borders that of the Chairman of the Committee, hon. Benjamin Lagat. My constituency also borders the constituency of my good friend from Tinderet. Aldai is part of Muhoroni because Miwani is part of Muhoroni but there is a lot of influx of people from Aldai to Muhoroni. We have never had serious border conflicts but when I looked at this paper, it served as an eye opener to me - that, it could be one of the reasons why we have unnecessary border skirmishes. Maybe, someone somewhere wants to amalgamate Chemelil and Muhoroni. Muhoroni has been undervalued so that he can buy the two for a song. We have several members of the Luo community who have huge farms. The Omamo family is an example. The former Chief of Protocol of the Prime Minister, Mr. Caroli Omondi, bought a farm which used to belong to Mr. Abura, but he cannot set his foot on that farm because the rowdy Kalenjin youths have pitched tent there, and the Government of the day cannot remove them. I was wondering whether this was banditry or thuggery. What is happening? Muhoroni Sugar Company is grossly undervalued at less than a billion shillings and they want us to pass this Bill in a hurry because the COMESA wall is going to fall. We need to do something to safeguard the interests of the farmers. Privatisation is the best alternative. I am for privatisation but in order for us to see this concept through, we need serious consultations. Farmers and the major stakeholders must be brought together, with the leadership of the county governments, whether we like them or not, so that we can agree on the way forward. As leaders, we must sit down and form committees that will vet the so-called strategic investors because they may not be strategic investors after all. We are waiting for them to come from outside but they may be some local political bigwigs who have collected a lot of money. During Moi’s regime, they were called “sugar daddies”. 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."
}