Florence Mwikali Mutua

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 281 to 290 of 341.

• 27 Apr 2016 in National Assembly: and go to school immediately. However, nowadays, a small disease will take you to hospital, where you get hospitalised for a very long time. We need the wild plants that were used in those days to give us medicine to be very well protected by the proposed institutions. We need them to be tested and tried so that we can have the right seeds. Nowadays, people die of snake bites every other day. We used to have snakes and they used to bite us all the time, but we never died. There were plants that were used to ensure that ... view
• 27 Apr 2016 in National Assembly: It is important for the proposed institution to ensure that the seeds that they produce are disease free. For example, in Busia County, we need cotton seeds that are disease free. It is not any seed that can be planted there and do well. We need to have the ginneries in Busia County working again. Cotton was one of our cash crops that were giving our people some money. As I sit, I want to say that I have distributed 3,500 bags of certified maize seeds to my people in Busia County. I am sure this is going to improve ... view
• 18 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I was part of the smaller committee that started investigations in this Report. Today is a very important day because this Report is being discussed. One of the biggest challenges we have in the sugar sector is that reforms have taken too long hence giving room to unscrupulous businessmen and businesswomen to engage in illegal imports and purported exports to ruin the local sector. This has led to a lot of suffering for our farmers. I will talk about one of the amendments that was critical, which was brought ... view
• 18 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I was saying that the management of Mumias Sugar Company had an issue when it came to verifying whether indeed any sugar was exported. It was agreed that the exports made between 2006 and 2012 were fictitious. So, it is important for Mumius Sugar Company to come up with the audit that we have been waiting for a long time so that we can move on with this Report. view
• 18 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: The sugar industry in Kenya indirectly supports six million Kenyans and contributes about 7.5 per cent of the country’s GDP. I must mention that the last sugar consumption report 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. view
• 18 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: that was done in Kenya was done in 2010. That was a very long time ago. We have requested the Sugar Directorate to do another survey for Kenyans to know what their consumption is at the moment. Kenya’s sugar production cost is very high. We spend US$550 per metric tonne while other regions are spending US$415 per metric tonne. This is because we are still using very archaic machinery, very old methods of planting and small uneconomic farms instead of doing large-scale farming. We are not embracing technology and planting fast-growing sugarcane. We still rely on rain-fed farming. view
• 18 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: Lastly, we have not really utilised the by-products of sugarcane. Instead, we are only interested in sugar itself. We are very happy that the Government, as it said, bailed out Mumias Sugar Company. However, we all need to understand what that money did. There are still very many issues that are coming up. We even understand that most of the farmers were never paid. So, it is important to understand where that money went. view
• 18 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: Modernisation of factory technology is very important. The issue of injecting fresh capital is welcome to the poor performing government-owned mills. However, it is very important for the people who are injecting this money to sit with the relevant stakeholders and prioritise what the funds will do. Our mills’ machinery is outdated. This is one of the key areas which we thought any money that is brought to bail out our mills would focus on. view
• 18 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: Also of importance is the speedy exploitation of viable options that will see the ministry fast track privatisation of the five public sector-owned sugar mills. As we do this, we need to understand that agriculture is a devolved function and we need to involve the relevant people before any decisions are taken on such issues. Privatisation should also be done in a more accountable way. County governments must be involved. All the sector players should also be involved on these issues. view
• 18 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: The issues of machinery and ancestral land should be dealt with independently because they have been raised severally. We have had issues of COMESA for the last 13 years but nothing has been done. No concrete measures have been put in place to ensure that our sugar is competitive. We are breaking our legs in the last minute all the time trying to add another year when it comes to the issue of COMESA. Sugar business is good but not for the farmers. view