Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1524053,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1524053/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 289,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mungatana, MGH",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, some of them are not even given breaks during lunch and others have very long working hours. People are left wondering what is happening because we are in this same country. This report of the Senate has found out that people who are doing the same type of duty within the companies are being paid lower wages. Foreigners who are coming to work are being given higher salaries than the Kenyans who are working within the same outfit. We are living in the 21st Century and under a new Constitution, yet our workers are being discriminated right here in this country. The blame lies squarely at the doorstep of the Cabinet Secretary for Investment, Trade and Industry in Kenya. He must move out of the office, go and see what is happening for him to advise the President on what we need to do to make our workers work well. I am confident that he will listen to this and actually act on it. Kenya cannot be the place where our workers are being oppressed, yet our Cabinet Secretaries are there. The Cabinet Secretaries for Labour and Social Protection and the Cabinet Secretary for Investments, Trade and Industry should even have a special task force to investigate the environment where our people are working and fight for them. It is good to bring the EPZs here, but it should not be a source of exploitation and pain to our people. These are the same people who we go and ask votes from. After we do so and form Government, we forget about them when they are living in such horrid conditions. Shame on us. Apart from these recommendations, the Cabinet Secretary for Labour and Social Protection should cooperate with the Cabinet Secretary for Investments, Trade and Industry. They should visit these places and find out whether these EPZs are keeping the agreements that were formed when they were coming into this country. This report also says that those companies in EPZs do not do any Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This was a notion that came in recent years, but now it has become an accepted norm for any corporates that are working in Kenya and even globally. These corporates usually know where their workers are staying. Most of them come from congested areas where roofs leak and are not well set up. What is wrong with them? Why can they not visit some of these areas? Why can they not work with local administration to help their own workers live in better conditions? Why can they not take up paying school fees for them in boarding school, so that their children can have better education and surpass their moms and dads? Why is it that these EPZs are always given such favourable terms and they do not return anything to the communities that work for them, particularly the labourers who give all their time, money and strength for them? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, these people get sick from those long hours and tough working conditions in those companies. Why can they not create medical schemes for their workers or build clinics? You will find that it is a company that is making garments, but they cannot employ even a nurse to help with panadols. They just leave those people, exploiting labour and they do not care. This report and this Senate are saying that the EPZs should do something about CRS. I highly accept and recommend that this particular issue be expedited. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}