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{
    "id": 1512872,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1512872/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1243,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Embakasi North, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. James Gakuya",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "competition. This applies to the complaints our local traders raised considering one player, China Square, who carries out retail marketing. After listening to and hearing various stakeholders, we realised that we have a serious gap in the law that we need to seal. We have laws that protect the county governments and the national Government. There is need to look at those policies that govern our trading and make it possible for coordination between county governments and the national Government, to create a way of protecting local traders. We should also make sure that we do not lock out foreigners who trade in this country. In our observations, we propose that there is need for the Ministry of Investments, Trade and Industry and the Investment Promotion Department within it, to issue certificates to foreign traders. According to the current law, the certificate is not mandatory. The law states that it “may”. That means that it is not mandatory for any single foreign player to be issued with that certificate. Therefore, there is need to re-look at that and make it mandatory for the Investment Promotion Department to issue certificates which have conditionalities on the nature of compliance one has to follow as a player or a trader, especially foreigners. This should not only apply to trade from China, but also from other countries in order for our domestic players to be comfortable. After evaluating what our neighbour, Ethiopia, does, we realised that they ringfence certain areas like retailing and hawking to the locals. In our country, because it is a liberalised country, we allow even foreigners to do business at every level. One can be a producer and become a dealer. He can also become a stockist, a retailer and a hawker at the bottom, making it very difficult for our traders to compete with them, especially in commodities that are sourced from outside the country. There is a great need to look at our laws and make sure that we soften them to protect our domestic players in order to make their businesses prosper. We visited Gikomba, Kamukunji and other areas where these businesses are and the competition is very high. Also on standards, the KEBS and counterfeit departments are mandated to take care of that. You can find people selling the same commodity, but the quality is different. Therefore, this means that someone can bring in a commodity of a lesser quality and compete with somebody selling a standard product. In this case, we also advocate that it is important for the Kenya Bureau of Standards to have the correct equipment to check whether commodities are of the right standards or whether they are counterfeit. When we invited them, we realised that they gauge whether a product is counterfeit or not by using the conformity assessment from the country of origin. That does not give the correct position because we need equipment which can clearly test the correct standards."
}