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{
    "id": 664353,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/664353/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 142,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kimaru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2072,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Mutahi Kimaru",
        "slug": "anthony-mutahi-kimaru"
    },
    "content": "We should not be keen on seeing that sugar from Brazil and other places is cheap. We must look for ways of making the sugar that is produced locally cheaper and economically viable to produce. That way, we will even enrich our very own in the villages. They will become richer because they will have a source of livelihood. However, if we abandon every viable agricultural venture, knowing that our country is really agricultural, we are not going to progress as a nation. I remember those good days where we had textile factories that were working where I come from in Nanyuki. They employed thousands then. That was in the 1970s and 1980s. We had a sisal factory that was employing thousands and creating wealth. All these are dead today. We do not have them. We still insist that as a country, we want to industrialise and move forward. From my experience, when you want to successfully industrialise, you cannot import raw materials all the time. It will make a lot of economic sense to produce the raw materials locally. So, it behooves all of us as legislators and representatives of the people to come up with solutions that will make agriculture viable wherever we are, be it sugarcane, pyrethrum, sisal or even cotton which is not grown anymore in Kenya. It used to be an important cash crop here in Kenya. I suppose that the Government should even go further and subsidise. Nations all over the world, even those which are developed, largely subsidise production of agricultural products. Therefore, I support this amendment. I hope that the benefits that will come with it will be transferred to the farmers and not the bourgeoisie providing services or the middlemen. I support, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker."
}