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{
    "id": 1233735,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1233735/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 224,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kangema, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Peter Kihungi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I stand to support the Report on the investigation. The Government should take up investigation. I am a Member of the Departmental Committee on Labour, and I was among the team that went there. It is very painful to see what the people and women who work in those estates go through. It is as if they do not live in this country. It is as if there is no law and there is nobody to care for them. They seem extremely helpless. When we went to the sites while trying to interrogate the issues, we would start talking to somebody and when he or she would feel secure, they would hope that nobody will be able to notice. They would give you stories of how the person who was given the contract for labour misuses those women. We were told that whenever he has a desire for women, he does not have to get a room in a lodge because the estates have manmade forests that provide wood for boilers. He would have sex with women inside those forests. It was so repugnant; it was not as easy as we thought. We were told that we were only allowed to access those estates because of the new Government in place. We got a letter that the BBC wrote before they aired the exposé. They wrote to the companies and gave them the evidence that they had collected, and mentioned the issues that had been raised by the journalist who was about to break the story. When the companies got that information, they did not care. They did not respond or even try to manage the exposé because they knew that the Government would do nothing, and nothing would happen to them because they thought they were in control. When we met officers from the DCI and the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, they were defending the tea estates. When we met them during a meeting that was held at the County Commissioner’s office, they were defending the tea estates. I wondered where workers at the companies could report their cases to because the administration and the people who are supposed to represent them were defending the tea estates. The DCI and the Ministry officials said that those allegations were created to fight the tea estates. However, when we held discussions with the women, men and shop stewards at the companies, they told us that even if they gave us the evidence, we should not expose them because they would be sacked. Therefore, whatever the reporters aired was the truth. 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."
}