GET /api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1278457/?format=api
HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1278457,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1278457/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 176,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "ascertains our food and animal feeds as safe for consumption. This Bill also seeks to establish the Office of the Food and Feed Safety Controller who will be charged with that responsibility. So, we will have a one stop Office of the Food and Feed Safety Controller to clear and ascertain food as safe for human consumption for Kenyans. This Bill also provides for the role of county governments in food and feed safety. As you will realise there have been a lot of changes since the Constitution 2010 came in affecting many functions in the agriculture and health sectors other than policy formulation. A lot of other works are designated under Schedule Four of the Constitution to our county governments. Therefore, in this Bill, we seek to provide for the role which county governments will play in ensuring how farmers produce food, transport, process and package it as safe and secure for consumption. This Bill further seeks to ensure there is supply of safe food to consumers and feed to animals. This being a critical function of both national and county governments in fulfillment of consumer protection rights. In this Bill, we have ensured there are modalities in which both the county governments and national Government will coordinate through the Office of Food and Feed Safety Controller. Once this Bill is passed, it will ensure both levels of government play their role of ensuring consumers both in and outside this country buy food and feed items fit for consumption and their interests and rights are protected. Hon. Speaker, the Bill also seeks to ensure that food is safely produced, distributed, marketed and prepared from farm to human consumption. Clause 3 outlines the objectives which are as follows: One, to effectively coordinate the performance of the functions of the competent authorities and enhance accountability in the implementation of official control. As Members are aware, this Bill shall apply to every competent authority and every person conducting food business or feeds business. The guiding principles provided for in Clause 5 upon the implementation of this Bill shall be as follows: One, is protection of human life and health. As I said, right from food production all the way to consumption through processing and marketing, we must ensure we protect both human life and health. Two, is protection of consumer interests in the conduct of the food and feeds businesses. In this country in the past, we have seen feed manufacturers who produce feeds for animals that produce meat, milk or poultry produce feeds - one, under very unhygienic conditions and two, in environments where these feeds are exposed to elements harmful to the human body. Hon. (Dr) Nyikal who served as the Director of Public Health will tell you there is a huge bearing in relation to prevalence of certain non-communicable diseases and the feeds our animals consume. Consequently, human beings consume those animals as poultry, milk, beef or pork. There is scientific evidence that certain diseases are transmitted to human beings as a result of unsafely produced feeds consumed by animals. Three, it seeks the use of scientific-based risk analysis which is very important. As I said in my earlier statement, without any scientific-based risk analysis, all manufacturers of animal feeds or human food have no basis of determining the ingredients they put in the food or feeds. In some instances, we find people importing feed nutrients that are already banned in their home countries and utilising them to produce animal feeds here. Consequently, they become harmful to our health. No wonder the high prevalence of certain cancers, and again Dr Nyikal will bear me witness. I think the Departmental Committee on Health noted during their deliberations that certain cancers prevalence is in a way connected to the kind of feeds fed to animals and human beings consuming products from those animals. Therefore, with the promotion and use of scientific-based risk analysis, we shall be in a position to determine whether certain nutrients are useful to human bodies or animals and safe for consumption. 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."
}