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{
    "id": 619494,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/619494/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 297,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. F.K. Wanyonyi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2065,
        "legal_name": "Ferdinard Kevin Wanyonyi",
        "slug": "ferdinard-kevin-wanyonyi"
    },
    "content": "Secondly, apart from this sugar competing with the local sugar, we have established that the Kenya Government has been losing a lot of revenue in terms of taxation. Some of the importers are unscrupulous who evade taxation. We have also observed that the wrangling in Western Kenya is as a result of the KSB licensing factories within certain zones. It has been found that the KSB has been issuing licences to millers who are very close to each other, either out of greed or out of reasons best known to them. We shall discuss this matter in detail. That is why we have been having problems in Western Kenya. Factories fight among themselves just because some licences have been given to factories that are not supposed to have been licenced. There is a lot of infighting between factories in Western Kenya because of improper way of licencing those factories. Thirdly, for a factory to be licenced, it must prove its effort to have its own nucleus of farms or at least get some farmers to produce cane for the factory. However, because the factories are just licenced, they start encroaching on other factories’ farms. That has brought a lot of infighting which has caused loss of business in the region. Therefore, cane poaching is one of the reasons we found to have plunged the sugar industry into crisis. There are challenges that were mentioned by my Chairperson, one of which is the repeated planting of sugarcane year in, year out. The soil gets degenerated and, therefore, production is very low. As the Chairperson of the Committee mentioned, farmers are demoralised because they are supposed to be given extension services by the millers, but some of the farmers do the work on their own. So, production has been going down year in, year out. The cost of production is also high. Because of population pressure, you will find that a small farm of about 40 acres has been subdivided into six or more portions. Therefore, economies of scale cannot be applied and production has been going down. The other problem is cheap imports. Some people import cheap sugar which is repackaged to conceal the identity of the country of origin. The imported sugar competes with our locally produced sugar and the Government loses in taxation. The other problem that we have is in terms of declaration. There are some entry points through which sugar comes into the country and the KRA, the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and the police are aware. A visit by the Committee to Shimoni at the Coast found that sugar from outside passes through that point. The Customs Department, the police and the KSB are aware of that entry point. Sugar coming into the country through Shimoni is the cause of the crisis we have been having. 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."
}