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{
    "id": 835449,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/835449/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 167,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Narok North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Richard ole Kenta",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 420,
        "legal_name": "Richard Moitalel ole Kenta",
        "slug": "richard-moitalel-ole-kenta"
    },
    "content": "heard. As everybody realises, that was a failure on the part of the Committee concerned because it is against the rule of natural justice for anybody to be condemned unheard. After receiving the petition, which was necessitated by the petition by the advocate of the company, we were seized of the matter as the implementation committee. As instructed by the Speaker, we gave the company an opportunity to be heard. Having realised that Parliament cannot afford to set precedent of not allowing people an opportunity to be heard in such a matter, which involves their livelihoods and employment of people, we had an opportunity to listen to Kenafric Industries. We observed that, true to the claim by Kenafric, they were never given an opportunity to be heard. They appeared before the Committee. For us to have heard them and confirmed what they said, we also had to call the Ministry of Agriculture and the Sugar Directorate to confirm what they said. It is also very important for this House to understand that when we called the Sugar Directorate, they confirmed that this was an anomaly, they have always been licensing Kenafric and the company has never dealt in table sugar; in fact, it has always been importing industrial sugar which is used for confectionaries. They also confirmed that they have been doing inspections at all times and at no time did they find any evidence of any packaging of table sugar by the said company. In fact, when the Committee confronted them and asked how they could have made such far-reaching representations to the committee on agriculture, they were lost for words. It became a blame game between the Sugar Directorate and the defunct Sugar Board. It is very important to note that when the said company appeared before us, it was very clear that it operates in Nairobi only, it does not buy sugar from any other company in Kenya and that there is audit of any consignment brought in by this company. They confirmed to the Committee that it would not make any economic sense for a company to package industrial sugar as table sugar because it is more expensive and it will need three times the quantities for it to taste as much as table sugar. So, it was very clear from the beginning that this was an inaccurate presentation to Parliament. It should be very clear to this House that its job is not to curtail businesses of the Kenyan people but to ensure that there is good working environment. What happened is that because of what was in the report, this company lost a lot of international business, which cost the country millions of dollars. It is also very important to note that whereas we have problems in the sugar industry, the corruption that has emanated from this confusion has led to destruction of many innocent companies, and Kenafric is one of them, and it is something that should not be encouraged. What transpired is that there was corruption, unnecessary finger pointing and unnecessary mentioning of people’s and companies’ names. And Parliament was made to do something that it was not meant to do. In fact, the Committee requests Parliament to ensure that they always double check whatever evidence given. We went through all the evidence that was produced and there was no single evidence that a certain brand of sugar was packaged by this company. When we heard them out, there was no way we would have this recommendation stand. The Committee observed that that was a very dangerous move. It was not done by Parliament but by an entity that was supposed to guide Parliament, the licensing authority. Because of that, we call upon Parliament to call them to account, because we do not know how many other companies were condemned unheard. The other issue is that Parliament has been taken to court because of this. Whereas there are people who actually caused the demise of some of these companies like Mumias Sugar and others - they are billionaires out there - they are scot free but the ordinary factory in Ruaraka that provides livelihood to many Kenyans has been put into an embarrassing economic situation. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}