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{
    "id": 619716,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/619716/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 207,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Oyoo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2408,
        "legal_name": "James Onyango Oyoo",
        "slug": "james-onyango-oyoo"
    },
    "content": "who can direct the Director of Criminal Investigation (CID) that there is illicit import coming, so he can close his eyes and let his officers allow that to happen. I have said this in interviews by television networks and I am waiting for somebody to challenge me. Sugar is not a piece of dress that you can go to Europe and buy for your friend. The sugar glut that is messing up the sugar industry in this country is brought in big containers. They come through Kilindini Port. Some come through our porous border posts where we have policemen, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) officials, Kenya Defence Forces personnel and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) officials. They still find their way to Nakumatt Supermarkets in Nairobi. This brings me to the conclusion on who is importing sugar. Who is trying to run down the sugar industry? If the Government is serious, we want to know who is importing sugar. We want to know who is messing up the sugar industry. The manager for Mumias Sugar Company was sought through competitive recruitment because it was a private company, but who is running down Nzoia Sugar Company, Chemelil Sugar Company and Miwani Sugar Company? Miwani Sugar Company was a private company. At one point, it was run down by the same owners who were persuaded to take hefty loan from the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC). They then ran away and left heavy debentures there. It has been the same story that it will be revived by the Government, but it has not been revived. It has now been left to the crooked Asians to loot even the land. Land which belongs to the indigenous people is being looted. The EACC, under the diligent and able leadership of PLO Lumumba arrested the same looters but you will still find them walking on the streets and visiting the high and mighty in the political arrangements in this country. I am sorry for what has bedevilled Mumias sugar growers. The bitterness could be exhibited by my colleague, the Member of Parliament for Mumias East. I sympathise with him. However, I also want him to know that while he is crying that Mumias has been mismanaged, unfortunately for me, Miwani land has been stolen by people I know and see. We have reported them, they have appeared in court but they are dodging the cases here and there. Chemelil Sugar Company is going down and the chronology can be stated when it started going down and why. Muhoroni Sugar Company is in perpetual receivership when it was one time making enough profit. These are not in Mumias. They are not run down by the Board of Management of Mumias Sugar Company or the so-called KRA. We must, therefore, realise that there is something much more serious. I urge the Jubilee Government to be very diligent and serious with this industry. This industry employs people; this industry feeds fathers and this industry also raises taxes which the Government badly needs for developmental itinerary. So, why have they left the sugar farmer to be helpless? Why have they left, because if it is the management, save for Mumias, who are bringing down the sugar industry in Muhoroni, Chemelil, SONY, Nzoia they are appointees of the Government? If the Government is serious in reviving the sugar industry, it needs to rein in on its managers first or stop interfering with them because we know these people get instructions from high command. They are not doing it on their own. We want the Government to think about this seriously and take steps to revive these companies. It is not about waking up and saying: “We are giving Mumias Sugar Company Kshs1 billion to revive its operations.” That is a drop in the ocean. More so, this money is not coming from Government coffers, but from the Kenya Sugar Board. It is got from the sugar levies that the same farmers pay for every delivery of sugarcane. A farmer pays some money called “Sugar Levy Development Fund”. That is the money the Government is quietly taking and each time they want to go to Nzoia they say that they are taking some money there. This is the case and yet 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."
}