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{
    "id": 770969,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/770969/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 205,
    "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 an opportunity to contribute to this Motion. Before I go ahead and support it. I will request that when we come to contribute to debate in this House, we need to get our facts right. If we do not have the facts, we should not impute improper motive on other people. When a Member talks of Kshs3 billion, I do not know where he got those statistics from or who told him that money was spent. Therefore, it is unfair to tell us that the Jubilee Government spent so much money in a certain region whereas you do not have any facts. I do not find that to be in order. I stand to support this Motion, especially when we talk of cash crops which are the main income earners for our farmers and the country. It hurts me so much, especially when we talk of sugarcane. Sugar is never enough in Kenya but we have so many factories. Unfortunately, those factories, shambas or farms have been grossly mismanaged and have become cash cows for individuals who are entrusted by the public and farmers to run the same. We know of so many people who have become multi-billionaires having worked in those factories. The farmers become the workhorses for those people. The issues of the Government assisting, factories being rebuffed and getting more sugarcane from farmers should be addressed by people charged with the same job and have integrity. A farmer is keen on when he or she delivers. Why do you take a month, two or six months until you accumulate millions of shillings in debt whereas you sold the sugar? Another problem we have in this country is how we prioritise, especially with regard to the cost of production. Why should a bag of sugar from Brazil, having crossed the Atlantic Ocean up to Mombasa, once it lands in Nairobi cost less than a bag of sugar which was manufactured in Mumias less than 300 kilometres away? It means that we do not use our expertise properly so that we do proper costing and get enough sugar for our people. Even domestically, we cannot meet the demands. We have better land, good soils and more rainfall than our brothers in Sudan. Sudan is an exporter of sugar. They just rely on the River Nile which passes through a desert. But when you talk of western Kenya, Nyanza and the Coast, we have enough water and land but there is no proper management. In as much as we want to put this law in place, it will be unfortunate if those people who sit in those factory offices and engage in marketing, procurement and overseeing the sale of sugarcane, do not do it prudently or do proper costing, we shall sing this song until the cows come home. It is unfortunate. People get employed there, run out with the money then they come and look for political positions using the same money whereas the farmers are languishing in poverty and their children are not going to school and many other things. Before we talk about money or how to put money into the sugar industry, let us restructure the management of the 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."
}