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"speaker_name": "Mr. Muthama",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Bill. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to touch more on issues and problems that affect Kenyans and, mostly, this Ministry as far as communications is concerned. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to express great concerns. My concerns are based on the issues that Kenyans are going through. One of them is that I know many people, and me being one of them, who may want, very seriously, to invest in the broadcasting business. Even the Minister will agree with me that with the normal culture of Kenyans, just wanting to do things in order to circumvent and block other Kenyans from accessing certain services, the frequencies have been grabbed. They have been taken away. They have been applied for and given to certain individuals and they are lying in the stores. They are not being used as they ought to. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is up to the Minister himself and the Government to make sure that the frequencies which have been taken away; the frequencies that have been applied for and given, are given to provide services to Kenyans! By some people having them and 3456 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 12, 2008 keeping them in their stores, they are not serving this country in any way. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, so it is the responsibility of the Government to get those frequencies back and have conditions like time limitation. The Government can say: \"You have the frequencies allocated to you, but if you do not set up your broadcasting system in the next six months, return them.\" That is the property of the Government of Kenya. Use it now and somebody else will use it tomorrow, because life in Kenya must go on. That issue of frequencies must be taken seriously. We are talking about broadcasting in this country in this Bill. Today, there is very clear evidence that Kenyans have resorted to watching movies from Nigeria. I want to confess, as a Kenyan, that Kenya is on the world map. If not everybody in Africa, we are ahead of many people in this continent. We are importing movies from Nigeria, yet we know very well that Kenya was the very first country in Africa to produce a movie depicting the former President of Uganda, Idd Amin, in The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin . That movie was filmed here in Kenya, and if you remember very well, Mr. Lidondo was one of the main actors; he performed so well that the movie was accepted worldwide. Kenya being at that stage at that time, what is so difficult about Kenya to be selling movies to Nigeria and other countries? We have Mzee Ojwang' and he has performed well. I want to assure you that Kenyans in Tanzania, Uganda and other neighbouring countries, where Kiswahili is spoken, when ViojaMahakani or Vitimbi comes on the screen, in Tanzania, nobody does anything else. They sit and pay attention to our people. Mzee Ojwang' started acting when the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) was called the \"Voice of Kenya (VoK)\". The VoK was transformed to the KBC, so that it could be a commercial institution, but it has never worked like that. Mzee Ojwang' acted when TV was in black and white and he is still acting. Even with all that demand, the KBC has never transformed those movies into valuables that can be sold to those who watch them freely through our stations. Even with Kenya being the first East African country to have a TV frequency, the KBC has been unable to transform those movies into valuable movies. We also have Mama Kayai, Masaku and others. If they can be taken seriously and be allocated enough time, not 15 minutes--- I love watching Vitimbi and Vioja Mahakamani, but what can I do with 15 minutes? People want more time for these programmes. That has to be looked into, because it is a way of promoting those people and making the world get to know them. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with the technology that we have, it is not up to Kenyans to push for everything when they have the Ministry of Information and Communications. It is up to the Ministry to know that it is accountable for anything that takes place. Actually, they will be in charge of the services that they give to Kenyans and what they have done to execute their mandate. If they fail to transform those actors and make their movies generate income and promote this country outside as part of bringing tourism earnings to this country, then we will not be serious with what we will be doing. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have musicians in this country who have sung good songs. There was the late Peter Mwinamo, the late Kabaka and the late Fadhili Williams. It is us who fail to recognise our abilities. We have what it takes in this country to do what can be done. Fadhili Williams composed the famous song Malaika in the 1960s. Apart from the late Miriam Makeba of South Africa, a local African artist composed songs which actually can be admired in the world and more so Africa. There is no other musician who composed this song except Fadhili Williams. From my travelling experience, I want to assure this House that Malaika has been played all over the world. It has been played in Malaysia, America and so on. That song alone shows the talent Kenyans have. So, it is up to the Ministry of Information and Communications to tap those talents. If the people in the United Kingdom (UK) can play Malaika, what have we done to help our artists? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on private broadcasting, we talk about doing our level November 12, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3457 best but all this is governed by the Constitution. It is in the Bills that we pass in this House. I want to read Section 46, Clause 1 (D)(2) which says:- \"A licence granted under this section may include conditions requiring a private broadcaster to provide coverage in such areas as maybe specified by the Commission\". Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if the permission granted is through the licence which is paid for, it has got a period of time. If it expires without being put into use, it should not be renewed just for someone to have it. That frequency should be withdrawn from that person. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}