H.E. William Ruto, EGH, EBS

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 271 to 280 of 478.

• 20 May 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have a programme. I want to disabuse Members that free seeds and fertilizer are only available in certain areas of the country. We have made seeds and fertilizer available in as many parts of the country as possible, especially areas that are engaged in the planting season. Every part of the country, includes Mutito where constituency we have made allocations. What I want to request Members here is that when fertilizer and seeds are made available, we should encourage farmers to use certified seeds and apply fertilizer. This is because, in many parts of the ... view
• 20 May 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, my Ministry has imported 58,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer into the country. As I speak now, there is fertilizer that is being offloaded at the Port of Mombasa. There are another one million bags of fertilizer that will be available in the country by the end of this month. I want to promise this House that there will be adequate fertilizer for planting this season and next season. We have enough fertilizer in the country for planting until April next year. view
• 20 May 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are engaged in discussions between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance towards the establishment of a regional fertilizer manufacturing facility. We are looking at how feasible it is for Kenya alone to establish a fertilizer manufacturing factory and how we can juxtapose that with the possibility of establishing a regional fertilizer manufacturing factory. We have had discussions between Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, on the establishment of a fertilizer manufacturing factory. Discussions are at a very advanced stage. Already, deposits of phosphates have been established in parts of Uganda and Tanzania. Studies ... view
• 20 May 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this House facilitated my Ministry and the Ministry Higher Education Science and Technology, with the passage of the Biosafety Bill. With the passage of this law, we now have enough latitude to be able to do extensive research to establish better varieties of all manner of categories of seeds; be it cassava, millet, maize, beans or sorghum where, we are able to access the potential of our dry land area. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to assure Members here that the policy and legislative framework provided by the Biosafety Bill are going to benefit this ... view
• 20 May 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the answer was prepared by my office but I do not understand why it did not get to the hon. Member. I had discussed the matter with him and we agreed to proceed because this Question is urgent and has a lot of public attention on the ground. view
• 20 May 2009 in National Assembly: I beg to respond. view
• 20 May 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, yes, there have been difficulties that have resulted in some of the farmers resorting in uprooting sugar cane farms in parts of Mumias. This has been informed by disagreements between farmers and the management of Mumias Sugar Company (MSC). The MSC is one of the biggest farms in the region. In fact, it controls about 50 per cent of all sugar production in the country. The difficulties that have been experienced between the farmers and MSC, among other things, is the relationship between the company and farmers. There has been a lot of bad blood that ... view
• 20 May 2009 in National Assembly: Secondly, there have been problems because fertilizer that is sold to farmers by the company has been very highly priced. In fact, in some cases, farmers have been charged for fertilizer that they did not get. There have also been incidents where farmers, for cane delivered, there has not been sufficient proof of cane delivered and cane accounted for by the company. Attempts by farmers to verify the tonnage of cane delivered to the factory has been difficult because the rules put in place by the company are such that farmers cannot be allowed to verify tonnage of cane from ... view
• 20 May 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, MSC initially indicated that they were going to deduct 30 per cent for all sugar that was harvested as a result of the cane being burnt. But in a meeting between the KSB and the management of MSC, it was agreed that MSC is going to refund all farmers whose money had been deducted under that view
• 20 May 2009 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, while that would be reasonable, MSC is a private company and the participation of the Government is limited. It will not be possible to pay the farmers retroactively but we will ensure that MSC like all other companies, does not exploit farmers. I also agree that MSC management is facing very serious challenges on the ground. I have asked the Board of Directors of MSC to look critically at the conduct of the management and ensure that they are taking care of the interest of all stakeholders to avoid upheavals in the industry because this industry ... view