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{
    "id": 763187,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/763187/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 113,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kubai Iringo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1574,
        "legal_name": "Cyprian Kubai Iringo",
        "slug": "cyprian-kubai-iringo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to second this Motion. I thank my brother, Hon. Melly, for giving me this chance to second this Motion. At the outset, let me congratulate you on your appointment to the Chairpersons Panel. I believe today is your first day. I wish you all the best in your current appointment. Having said that, I can see my colleagues especially from the sugar region are wondering why a miraa man has been told to do this but I strongly believe that this is a House of rules and we are all members of this House. When we debate, we do not debate because we come from where that particular Motion is originating but we debate as legislators in this country. When we pass this Motion, it will be passed by all of us and I am sure what affects sugar-cane in western Kenya affects miraa, pyrethrum and any other crop in this country. Kenya is an agricultural country and we all know that over 80 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes from agriculture. To some degree, as a country and government, we have neglected this sector which is the backbone of this country as far as economic development is concerned. More so, we have neglected the sugar-cane crop, which farmers toil day and night in hazardous conditions and somebody somewhere who has got a mill or a machine carries that sugar-cane to his factory to mill and sell. He pockets the money and the farmer is left there waiting for payments. That is very unfair and it is quite illegal. The Government should intervene. I support the Motion. If you take sugar-cane and you have produced sugar and you have sold it, why do you not pay the person who toiled day and night to produce that sugar-cane? That is how we are killing our cash crops. We killed the pyrethrum crop because of non-payments. It is not that the farmers do not deliver to the millers or to the people who use the products which come from our shambas . Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we need to manage the sugar industry properly and the way we mill our cash crops. Some farmers in the tea industry have almost abandoned their farms because the inputs are more than what is reaped. At the end of the day, middle men, factory owners and big companies end up getting over 200 or 300 per cent profit leaving the farmers with nothing. It is high time a policy is put in place, especially by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, to make sure that farmers are paid, and it is put in the Crops Act. If you take somebody’s crop from a shamba, especially sugar-cane, you have an obligation to pay immediately after production and before you sell. It is very absurd in this country when cane farmers are not paid whereas we know very well sugar is not enough in Kenya. We are even importing sugar from Brazil. If it is our cost of production which is wanting, let us get experts. I wonder how sugar can come all the way from Brazil across the Atlantic Ocean up to Kenya and cost less than sugar manufactured in Mumias or Muhoroni. It means we have put wrong mechanisms in place. Our production costs are more than what we can use to 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."
}