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"content": "These things that happen are not very juicy, but because we are required by regulations here to be decent---"
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. While I appreciate the hon. Member on this Bill, there are some terminologies he is using that we do not really understand like “many things happen at night.” Could he elaborate on that?"
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"content": "(Laughter)"
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"content": "There are very many things that happen at night, and I know what the hon. Member would like to hear; it is what they do with their wives when they sleep. So, when you sleep with your wife, you first of all greet them – but this is not your wife you are sleeping with – and then you have sex, and this is full sex; that is what they do at night. This time, you are doing it with a lady who is dehydrated, who is hungry, who does not have food and you pay her Kshs20 to Kshs50."
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"content": "If that does not convince this House that we need to pay these people a living salary--- A living salary is defined by international statutes. Living wage is that very, very minimum that will enable somebody to avoid going to sleep with a supervisor. I want to narrate a situation where at one time we were coming from luxurious hotels where hon. Members of Parliament go. On one night we met with one man who was naked and had very neat socks. I asked somebody what was happening. He did not look like a mad man. He looked very clean. He happened to be a supervisor in one of the farms, but the husband, who was a watchman, came back because instead of grading flowers, he was grading other goods."
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"content": "Let me say this, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we can have this, but I want again to go through a pay slip from one of the flower farms; I want to table it. The flower farm is owned by an Israeli, and we welcome them; they are wonderful investors. They do drip irrigation like never before; they grow very high quality varieties of flowers; they do good business. The Israeli investor is really welcome in Kenya. I went to their farms in Israel with some two hon. Members from my Committee. In Israel, they pay US$1,300 to the unskilled worker. Then, you have to give them a house, you have to give them an air conditioned room, a laundry machine and so many other things except food and water. That is what they have to do. Then the product which they have there is called a rose flower. I saw that there were about 250 varieties of rose flowers. They go to compete with Kenyan producers out there in the European market. The product from Israel and the one produced in Kenya end up at the same market. The Israeli workers are paid approximately – from my calculation – Kshs120,000 plus all other benefits. But what is he paying the Kenya worker, whom we represent? We are in this House to do just three things, to represent the people, do legislative work and undertake oversight. This is how it goes: days Present - 30; basic pay – Kshs110 per day. That works out to be Kshs3,300. House allowance, Kshs600, overtime at Kshs23.80 per hour works out to Kshs249.90. Leave amount, nil; transport allowance, nil; gross pay, Kshs4,149.90. NSSF, Kshs200; NHIF, Kshs120; welfare, nil; extra advance, nil; total deduction, Kshs320. Net pay, Kshs3,829.90. The farm is called Sinbad and this is the pay slip. We visited there with the local administration the other day – you saw it on the television. They also do not have uniforms; so they are exposed to very heavy chemicals."
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I said yesterday, the best we got in terms of corporate social responsibility at one time in Naivasha was a mortuary, because people there die in big numbers. People have refused to take bodies of their loved ones there because it is a contentious mortuary. We have welfare organisations. The people have not built homes but they have to transport bodies every weekend, including this weekend, to western Kenya, Nyanza, et cetera . We are in a country where people thrive on rumours and because of my strong argument on this basis, certain people have said that I have joined the party of my sister, ODM. If helping the workers in the flower farms means joining the ODM, let it be. You cannot sit here, enjoy the privileges that we have here and have these people go through all that torture, yet they contribute 10 per cent of the national GDP. They are the ones who sit in cold rooms and spray them, and everywhere else. They are there all the time. Tonight, they will be there. They are on time, so that you can enjoy the roses. Naivasha produces 50 per cent of the world’s red roses, with one farm producing 8 per cent. That is about a million stems per day, worth the equivalent of Kshs50 million per day. They give us manual figures and say that they are making losses. They like misleading us. It is painful. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, when there was volcanic ash sprouting into the air in Europe, they spoke the truth. They said that they were losing Sterling Pounds1.9 million per day, and this was published by all the media houses. So, if you want to know how big this industry is, multiply Sterling Pounds 1.9 million by the number of days in a year, and there you will be. The flower farm management said that they would relocate to Ethiopia. I went to Ethiopia, and I thank Mr. Speaker for approving my trip to Ethiopia. I went to the flower farms in that country. Ethiopia have just found out that these guys cheat. These guys just mislead everybody. So, Ethiopia has put in place a very strong law, barring anybody from running a foreign account outside Ethiopia because they ship out 97 per cent of the revenue. The poor Ethiopians are left with 3 per cent, and even with the 3 per cent left behind, they still do better than we do in Kenya. I learnt that they pay workers a minimum equivalent of Kshs60 per day and we still compete with them. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the smallest of the flower firms in Naivasha, for instance, is called Groove Limited. The owner is a very annoyed man that we are talking about increasing the salary of an unskilled labourer to Kshs10,000 per month. He admits, in a letter he wrote, that he pays Kshs10,419 but he was very annoyed that we are coming up with a statute to compel flower farms to be paying workers a certain minimum wage. The big companies we know of there, including some where some Members of Parliament have interests, pay more than Kshs7,8000, and where one has benefits, he is paid up to Kshs12,000. We are asking for a minimum pay wage of Kshs10,000, enough to make a human being live and enjoy his work. If the Minister for Labour would be kind enough and look at Section 46 of the existing law, it partly says that upon gazettement, he has to table it before this House. I have sat in this House for four years. Some hon. Members have been in this House for a very long time. We have never seen them table that document. They do it in secrecy. So, all the Gazette Notices that have come---"
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"content": "Hon. Mututho, can you table the letter that you have referred to?"
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"content": "Yes, I will, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. The Minister has published a Gazette Notice for a 15 per cent wage increment but based on Kshs110 per day, this would work out to Kshs147. So, we do not have any other alternative but come to this House and fix the minimum wage. We do not want to go to riots. Tonight, all workers in 100 flower farms can go on a riot and the Government will be sorting out crises as it is doing with the doctors. We can have sobriety. We can still market ourselves. It will be honourable to have those roses all over the world, but only when they are not grown on slave labour. We are talking about the flower industry. Even if a general worker earns Kshs3,300 at Lari, for instance, you give him water and housing. When you add it up, it is about Kshs8,000. However, a flower worker has to pay rent, buy food and do all other things. This is not acceptable. I have a list, which I would like to table. I would like to sign it because I am the one who typed it; I stand by it. It shows the breakdown of all the flower farms and how much the workers earn. In most of these farms, the workers earn Kshs3,600 or Kshs4,700. There is one farm which pays Kshs8,700. These are big names. They even stage flower shows and other activities."
}
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