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{
    "id": 619794,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/619794/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 285,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ababu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 108,
        "legal_name": "Ababu Tawfiq Pius Namwamba",
        "slug": "ababu-namwamba"
    },
    "content": "recommendation that one would lean on and say: “Yes, here is a platform to start fixing what ails the sugar industry.” I believe this Committee would have done this House a favour and would have served the interest of this agenda very well if they had told the Government point-blank that the primary reason behind the woos in the sugar industry is because successive Governments in this country have not treated this sub-sector with the seriousness it deserves. That is, the kind of attention in terms of infusion of capital, support to farmers and protection in the market that is afforded to sub-sectors like tea and coffee. We have not seen similar support and seriousness extended to the sugar sub-sector. That is why you see jokes like the Government announcing a Kshs2 billion, Kshs1 billion or Kshs5 billion support to the sugar industry, then a day after or a couple of weeks later, you see volumes upon volumes of cheap, unregulated and untaxed sugar flooding the sugar market in this country. This amounts to a big joke. It amounts to cynical and callous treatment of the sugarcane farmer and the millions of Kenyans who depend on this sub-sector, by the Government. It was done by the Kenyatta regime, Moi regime, Kibaki regime and it is being done by the Jubilee regime. All these regimes in succession have not been serious about fixing what ails the sugar industry. So, number one, I would want to tell the Departmental Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Co-operatives to, please, say it as it is. Say it as it ought to be said. Tell the Government to wake up and get serious with the sugar sub-sector. Getting serious will mean ensuring that we deal decisively with the perennial problem of importation of cheap, unregulated and untaxed sugar. The Chairperson of the Committee knows that even as we debate this Report, there are millions of tonnes of sugar on their way into this market. He also knows that the Government, through the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and other State agencies, has the capacity to stop this. I have not seen any decisive and unequivocal recommendation in this Report that bluntly tells the Government that it must fix this, not tomorrow or next year, but right now. There is also a big problem with the Kenya Sugar Board. The KSB is a regulator. As a regulator, it also ought to be a protector of the sector. It is also a big problem in this sub-sector. The manner in which the KSB issues licences to sugarcane firms is wrong. The Member for Busia County, my sister, Hon. Florence Mutua, proudly talked about the presence of two sugar factories coming up in Busia County, but she did not disclose that the presence of those two sugar factories within such a close range with each other violates regulations that ought to govern the functioning of this industry. This matter has dragged in court ad infinitum . The KSB has been absolutely impotent and unable to resolve this controversy. Why would the KSB issue two licences to two rival sugar companies within a few kilometres of each other in utter violation of the regulations, aware that that action in itself would render the whole enterprise a nullity and ineffective? I do not see anything in this Report that unequivocally places responsibility on the KSB in implementing regulations and enforcing the law that would clean up the mess in the sugar sub-sector. We know, and to be fair to the Committee, they have addressed the matter of the cost of production."
}