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{
    "id": 1511197,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1511197/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 273,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) Ojiambo Oundo",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "exclude anybody else. The moment we exclude anybody in the formal banking system we have shylocks coming into place to fill in the gaps left. There is a programme in Funyula Constituency where women who sell while sitting down, what they call abedo - a word borrowed from our neighbours in Ugenya meaning ‘to sit on the ground’ - are exploited. You find that somebody gives them Ksh1,000 and, at the end of the day, they have to take about Ksh1,300, as per the principle and the interest. We, therefore, need to continuously review the banking and financial markets to ensure that we address our many challenges. Hon. Temporary Speaker, the second part of the Bill deals with what I want to call the standards architecture or framework. This involves the Standards Act that deals with the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), the Kenya Accreditation Services Act that normally sets up Kenya Accreditation Service and, to some extent, also deals with the Special Economic Zones and the rest. Standards all over the world allow a country to do cross-border trading. They allow the world to standardise so that a product from one area is as good as a product from this country. This is a matter the Hon. Deputy Speaker has been very passionate about and has studiously and relentlessly pursued here. The chemicals, pesticides, or insecticides used in the agriculture sector are imported from countries, yet they are not allowed to be used in the country of origin. You find that Kenya is a dumping ground. Therefore, as the Departmental Committee on Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, one of the amendments we have incorporated to enrich this particular Bill is a requirement that a product will not be sold in this country if it is not widely used in the country of origin. This will ensure that dumping does not happen. They should not give it to us if they cannot take it. One area that we also dealt with at length was some changes that were being proposed under the Standards Levy to ensure and make it necessary that anybody who does pre-shipment conformity assessment has a tax presence here in Kenya. That is counterproductive; it will be expensive for Kenya, and we have successfully persuaded, honestly speaking, that we let the conformity assessment be done under the terms established by the Kenya Bureau of Standards. Finally, so that we allow other Members to contribute, is the issue of measurement standards. I have struggled for many years to convince my old mother that the kilogramme of meat today is what she used to buy in the 1970s. I have been unable to persuade her. Every time she sees me, she tells me that I sit in Parliament and asks why I cannot tell the Government to reinstate the kilogramme that was there in the 1970s. We do so because of the issue of calibration. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I have quite several friends who are engineers. Luckily enough, if you went to the University of Nairobi, especially the Faculty of Engineering, you will definitely have met these gentlemen and ladies. They tell me altitude and weight or measurement have a relationship. They also told me that in this country, the only place you can get the correct weight of an item or a mass is in Likoni. So, it means calibration must be made depending on altitude. We hope that the standardisation of calibrating laboratories and equipment given to Kenyans will improve the quantity of goods and services we buy now. With those few remarks, Hon. Temporary Speaker, I support."
}