{"id":807350,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/807350/?format=json","text_counter":311,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Nominated, ANC","speaker_title":"Hon. Godfrey Osotsi","speaker":{"id":13172,"legal_name":"Godfrey Osotsi","slug":"godfrey-osotsi"},"content":"The cartels have ensured that the cost of production of sugar is the highest in the region. So that the sugar in this country cannot be competitive against the sugar form Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and anywhere else in the world. The cartels have been behind the importation of illicit sugar into this country. They have led to poverty in sugar belt areas, especially western Kenya and Nyanza regions. They have been behind cane poaching. They are sitting at Kenya Sugar Directorate. They are in the Ministry of Agriculture. They are at the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KBS). They are at Harambee Avenue and all over. They have led to the collapse of Mumias Sugar Company, Nzoia, Muhoroni, SONY, Chemelil and other sugar companies. The cartels have ensured that the high debts that our sugar companies have cannot be written off. They have ensured that there is no payment to our farmers. Farmers have gone for long periods without payment of their cane deliveries to the factories."}