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{
    "id": 763230,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/763230/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 156,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Washiali",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 151,
        "legal_name": "Benjamin Jomo Washiali",
        "slug": "benjamin-washiali"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. At the outset I want to thank Hon. Julius K. Melly for bringing this Motion and also to thank Members, especially the ones who have already contributed. I have been listening keenly to their contributions. If you remember, in the last Parliament I was kicked out of this House for trying to bring amendments to a Motion that was meant to affect one of the public officers who then was the governor of Nairobi, but he has since lost that position. As I thank Hon. Melly for bringing this Motion, I would really wish that from the excitement I have seen from Members, as the 12th Parliament, we could sit together and draft a Bill that would address these problems once and for all. In as much as we appreciate the introduction of a Motion, a Motion on its own will not help us. This reminds me of what Hon. Wangwe had done in the 11th Parliament. He brought a Bill that we had not looked at as the Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Cooperatives. But we hope that now that we are in the 12th Parliament we will have that Bill reintroduced. Still, we need to have a comprehensive Bill that would address the issues of sugar-cane farmers. This is one sector that is not regulated. We have been waiting for regulations from when Hon. Kirwa was the minister for agriculture, all the way up to today when it is CS Bett. We were told when we were in the Committee of Agriculture, Livestock and Cooperatives that the regulations are with the Attorney-General and he is looking at them, but we are still wondering for how long the AG would look at the regulations. Without regulations, these would still be stories. We will be moving forward and backward without a solution to the problems bedeviling sugar-cane farmers. I even heard a Member who in his contributions talked of the sugar board. I think it is important that we have that corrected. Right now, sugar-cane farmers are under the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority which has a directorate on sugar. Therefore, the Kenya Sugar Board is no more. This was meant to improve the situation but up to now we have not had significant improvement coming from this sector. There is a serious problem of poaching. If I remember very well, one of the requirements of setting up a sugar factory was that that sugar factory must also demonstrate that they can have their own crop to crush. But today you will find a sugar factory coming up. As long as they have put up the milling plant, they go ahead and apply for a licence and they are licensed. This has encouraged a lot of sugar-cane poaching where you find a factory which does not have any kind of nucleus estate just going ahead to crush cane developed by another sugar factory. Therefore, the reintroduction of zoning, like at one point we used to have a requirement that any sugar miller must have its zone, I think it is important for us to move forward. We must reintroduce 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."
}