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{
    "id": 624517,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/624517/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 204,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Nooru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2238,
        "legal_name": "Adan Mohamed Nooru",
        "slug": "adan-mohamed-nooru"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker. At the outset, I want to thank the Members of the Departmental Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Cooperatives; the secretariat of that Committee and the Members of this House for the support they have given us on this Report. This Report has passed through many thick and thin issues. At last we have managed to bring it to the House after the delay. As has been said, we have had many challenges in bringing this Report to the House. Finally, we have to conclude this debate and I thank God. I want to set the record straight and clear. The Committee’s terms of reference as stipulated on page 5 are very clear and categorical. The notion that the Committee was specifically investigating Mumias Sugar Company is neither here nor there. Mumias Sugar Company is just one among the many sugar companies that have faced many problems in this country. We found that the company had problems because it imported, exported and was mismanaged. There were very many issues. I was of the opinion, as the Chair of the Committee that Mumias Sugar Company needs to be investigated as an entity, and not generalising its problems with those the sugar industry faces. So, the issues that the Committee or Members of this House are saying only affect Mumias Sugar Company are neither here nor there. That has to be clear in the mind of every Member or the nation. The second issue relates to imports which have killed this sector. This is known to everybody. My Committee went further to investigate the Director-General, whom we requested to give us the names of those importers, the so-called sugar barons or the untouchables of this country. As I speak here, we have not got those names. I have called the Inspector General of Police and asked him to tell us how sugar from Kismayu which is hundreds of kilometres away finds its way into this country, but we have not had an answer up to now. It is logical that, maybe, a town along the border can smuggle sugar for consumption purposes. However, it does not add up how tonnes of sugar can cross the border into the country with such high number of police roadblocks without being detected. So, I want to put the Government on notice on the issue of sugar smuggling. This is more so from Kismayu to this country. We suspect this sugar is funding terrorists in this country. So, the Government must look into this matter from the security angle and not only from the economic angle. The Government has to put on notice the sugar barons, the KRA officers, Kenya Police, KEBS and the inter-agencies as recommended in the Report. The Government should act decisively and deal with these issues once and for all. The third issue concerns privatisation of the sugar sector. This is the way to go. I am saying this because the millers that have problems today are owned by the public. The private millers which are small are doing well and have no problems. A Member has said here that West Kenya Sugar Company started with obsolete machines which it bought from Mumias as scrap. To date the machines are running. Butali and Kibos sugar companies are also running. Why Mumias? Why do you have to bail out the sugar sector every now and then? The only way out, and as has been recommended by this House, is for the Government to pull out of this sector and privatise it. The impediment in privatising the sugar industry is politics. When Members from sugarcane-growing areas defend some of their people, they kill their people. This is the only sector that the Government has protected since Independence. It is the only sector that the Government has been allocating billions and clearing 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."
}