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{
    "id": 763227,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/763227/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 153,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Koyi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2792,
        "legal_name": "John Waluke Koyi",
        "slug": "john-waluke-koyi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving a chance to contribute. I want to thank the Member for Tinderet for bringing up this. This is a problem that has been in this country for so long and the Jubilee Government should come out clearly, openly, strongly to make sure that we save the farmers. It is not only the sugar-cane farmers, but there are farmers in all sectors that are really suffering from not being helped by the extension officers. These days there are no extension officers from the Ministry of Agriculture who go around to see how farmers are doing. We want to bring this country back to those days. During President Moi’s time, extension officers were there. This year you saw voters refusing to vote because of unga and yet this country is capable of producing enough food crops. So, I believe and trust that after the election those who are giving us problems would have resigned. We hope that our able Government will do its work the way it is supposed to do. The problem of sugar-cane has been there for quite some time and I am also a sugar-cane farmer. Hon. Sambu and Hon. Wangwe are also sugar-cane farmers. It is something that affects us the people of Western Kenya. This privatisation also affects farmers in one way or the other. As a House, we need to see how privatisation should end and how the Kenyan farmer should be helped. Trans Nzoia and Bungoma used to be the maize basket in this country, but because of corruption, big people and their families have brought Trans Nzoia and Bungoma down. They have grabbed all government land. So we are not producing maize the way we used to these days. Sugar-cane is cash. When you go to a store or a supermarket, you will not be given sugar on loan or credit. Therefore, I support Hon. Kangogo that people who want to make sugar should buy sugar-cane from farms. Imagine you have given somebody your 10 acres of sugar- cane and it took you another 10 years to be paid yet he sold sugar those 10 years ago. What do you expect this farmer to do? Sometimes I say, as Members of Parliament; if you are in a committee, do not agree to be compromised. This thing is really hitting the country and the common mwananchi . Look at the pyrethrum subsector. For the maize farmers, the country has failed to produce a chemical that kills insects. They used to use pyrethrum for insects but now the Government has been unable. They were importing chemicals which cannot kill maize insects. So we are going backwards as a country instead of coming up. It is a very serious issue affecting every crop; be it tea or coffee. There are so many thieves in the coffee sector. A farmer can be rained on today plucking coffee, take to a society and tomorrow he will not be paid. So I support this Motion by the Member for 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."
}