{"count":1608389,"next":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=json&page=144547","previous":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=json&page=144545","results":[{"id":1463652,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1463652/?format=json","text_counter":565,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Naivasha, UDA","speaker_title":"Hon. Jayne Kihara","speaker":null,"content":"I support."},{"id":1463653,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1463653/?format=json","text_counter":566,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Peter Kaluma","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":{"id":1565,"legal_name":"George Peter Opondo Kaluma","slug":"george-peter-opondo-kaluma"},"content":" Member for Suba South, Hon. Caroli."},{"id":1463654,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1463654/?format=json","text_counter":567,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Suba South, ODM","speaker_title":"Hon. Caroli Omondi","speaker":null,"content":" Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I will try and be brief because I have two of my sisters here that also want to contribute. First, let me begin by telling a story. When sugar was first introduced in this country, it was at the City Stadium and Africans would be called on a Saturday and forced to take sugar because we did not know what sugar was. That is how it was introduced. They would be put on a queue, given free sugar and caged to take it. That was in the 1920s. After that, the first sugar mill in this country, which was Miwani, was actually started by Indian immigrants, Jamal and Mr. Indocha. What the record shows all over the world is that sugar mills that are state-owned do not work. I was in Cuba last year, and the sugar industry there has collapsed. In Kenya, all the private mills are profitable while all the public mills are in distress. It is because of politicians and people who have been in this House. We are the same people who have destroyed the sugar industry in this country as politicians. I have been a director in all the public sugar mills when I was a State Counsel and so, I have seen the evolution. 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."},{"id":1463655,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1463655/?format=json","text_counter":568,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Suba South, ODM","speaker_title":"Hon. Caroli Omondi","speaker":null,"content":"When Miwani was privately owned, it made money. When the Government acquired it, it stopped making money. So was Mumias. If you look at the history, we have no business as the Government of Kenya being in the sugar sector. Even this Motion and why I agree with it, we do not need to encourage the Government to incentivise farmers. If the private sector was running the mills through extension services and credit facilities, we would have enough raw materials for our mills. What we need to do is to divest completely as a Government from the sugar industries in the Republic of Kenya and hand them over to the private sector. There are two ways of doing that, and it is not rocket science. One, we need strategic investors with the capital and the know-how to run the sugar mills. Then, we need to isolate part of the shareholding and float them through the Nairobi Stock Exchange through what is called an Initial Public Offering so that members of the public can own shares in those sugar mills. Thirdly, we need to organise the out-growers into investment groups so that they too can be shareholders in those sugar mills. We are very sensitive about the so-called nucleus estates. To me, it is lack of understanding of how business works. The land should not withhold the privatisation of the sugar mills. It is very simple. We need to separate the mill from the out-grower nucleus. The out-grower nucleus can continue belonging to the county governments and then leased to the sugar mills on a long-term basis, but the sugar mills should be 100 per cent privatised and given out to investors so that they can be modernised. We have no business having multiple sugar mills in very un-economic areas. If you go to Brazil, sugar mills that are privately owned have their own railway stations. Even here in South Africa, if you go to KwaZulu-Natal, mills have their own railway lines that transport sugar. They organise the farmers and do their own research. The Government should only restrict itself to doing sugar research and regulating how the market works. But we have no business as a Government being in the sugar mills. Today, the proposed privatisation has stalled in court because of politicians. Some politicians in western Kenya have organised themselves and incited some farmers to go to court to stop the privitisation so that they can continue stealing. We once went with the former Prime Minister to Nzoia Sugar Company Limited and gave 150 tractors to outgrowers of the company. Within months, they were all vandalised. I challenge any one of you to go to any sugar mill and outgrowers. You will see equipment that has been vandalised by politicians. It is the same politicians who are in the outgrower organisations. We need to get rid of politicians. And the only way to do this is by privatising the mills so that farmers and investors can run their mills. We have no business being there. Hon. Temporary Speaker, let me conclude, so that I can give my colleagues time to contribute. Let us not be holden to traditional ways of thinking how business is conducted. As a Government, we cannot continue selling meat and eggs and having parastatals that do things that the private sector can do better. It is time we let the sugar industry go to the private hands so that it becomes profitable. When privatising, we should not give them to the current millers. When we are privatising Miwani Sugar Company Limited and Chemelil Sugar Company Limited, we cannot allow Kibos Sugar and Allied Industries to own them. When privatising Nzoia Sugar Millers, we cannot allow Butali Sugar Mills Ltd to own them. Also, when privatising the lower mills in Trans Mara or in Mumias, we should not allow the established private mills to own them as we will be creating monopolies and duopolies. We cannot do that. We must allow other players to come into the sector with experience of the mills and you will see a very vibrant sector. With those few remarks, I beg to support the Motion. 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."},{"id":1463656,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1463656/?format=json","text_counter":569,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Peter Kaluma","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":{"id":1565,"legal_name":"George Peter Opondo Kaluma","slug":"george-peter-opondo-kaluma"},"content":" Hon. Ruth Odinga came after Hon. Joyce Bensuda. Hon. Bensuda came after Beatrice Kemei, but I like the name Ruth Odinga. I want Ruth Odinga to speak because she is a farmer."},{"id":1463657,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1463657/?format=json","text_counter":570,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Kisumu County, ODM","speaker_title":"Hon. Ruth Odinga","speaker":null,"content":" Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I am very honoured. Hon. Bensuda, I am sure you know that in order of seniority, I have been allowed by the Temporary Speaker to speak before you. I start off by stating that I am very radical. I believe that the sugar sector should be privatised. I am a farmer who comes from the sugar-belt area. At the moment, my farms are not doing any commercial sugarcane farming. There are very many cartels. I want to tell you without fear that when you look at the sugar sector, most of the time, cartels operate within the Government sectors. And those Government sectors are the ones that own the sugarcane. For example, there is a time that the Kenya Sugar Board (KSB) gave mills like Mumias Sugar Company a license to import sugar. They would import it and package it as Mumias Sugar and sell it. This tells you that there was no way the local farmers who were dependent on Mumias Sugar Company Limited would take their sugarcane to be milled there. Secondly, apart from the sugar itself, so many people depend on the by-products of sugarcane like molasses. Kenya had two factories that were distilling ethanol, Spectre International and Agro-Chemical and Food Company Limited (ACFC). As we speak, those two factories do not produce enough ethanol and they used to be the only factories that produced ethanol in the whole of East Africa. Due to lack of molasses, which is a by-product of sugarcane, they are not able to operate. Spectre International was employing more than 500 people, but it is now closed down. Agro Chemicals & Food Company Limited is under-producing because they do not have the sugarcane. Apart from that, the private mills that are there have decided to now open their own ethanol factories within the sugarcane zones, denying those other companies the molasses, that is the by-product that they need. Secondly, I also believe that those mills should be privatised because those small and middle scale farmers are not able to take their sugarcane to the factories. And because of that, they are now selling their pieces of land. A person with 500 acres of land has now sold to seven other people and they are all taking the sugarcane to the factory. If you want to privatise those mills, you must consolidate the people to sell the land so that the private company that is coming is able to buy it and produce. Otherwise, that will not be possible with those small holding farmers. I also want to sell my farm because I have nothing to do with it. I might not probably get somebody to sell 500 acres of land to but, maybe, 100 acres to five different people. Once we do that, we are moving further from consolidating and selling to the private sector. Privatisation is the best way because of the cartels in the Government. As I speak, the privately-owned sugar mills like Kibos Sugar and Allied Industries Limited and Butali Sugar Mills, are the ones that are taking all the sugarcane within Muhoroni and our nucleus farms. So, there is no way our factories can compete with the private sugar millers."},{"id":1463658,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1463658/?format=json","text_counter":571,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Peter Kaluma","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":{"id":1565,"legal_name":"George Peter Opondo Kaluma","slug":"george-peter-opondo-kaluma"},"content":" Order, Hon. Ruth Odinga. You will have six minutes when this Motion comes back to the House. You will be the first to speak when it is mentioned. Hon. Beatrice Kemei, Hon. Bensouda and all Members listening to you know why I made the right decision to skip the line to recognise you before them."},{"id":1463659,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1463659/?format=json","text_counter":572,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Peter Kaluma","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":{"id":1565,"legal_name":"George Peter Opondo Kaluma","slug":"george-peter-opondo-kaluma"},"content":"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."},{"id":1463660,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1463660/?format=json","text_counter":573,"type":"heading","speaker_name":"","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"ADJOURNMENT"},{"id":1463661,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1463661/?format=json","text_counter":574,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Peter Kaluma","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":{"id":1565,"legal_name":"George Peter Opondo Kaluma","slug":"george-peter-opondo-kaluma"},"content":" Hon. Members, the time being 1.03 p.m., this House stands adjourned until this afternoon at 2.30 p.m."}]}