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"id": 195303,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Midiwo",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the body I seek to establish through this Motion is one that will be responsible for information and advising the public on issues that affect them, be they health, environment and trade. It will also investigate complaints about unfair business and trading practices. I also seek, through this body, to find a mechanism that will arbitrate where there are any controversies between the consumers and the service providers. We also wish to create a body that will enforce the law. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, around us, we have a free market economy; free in the negative sense that our people are being exploited everywhere, in all walks of life. This Parliament has a responsibility to the people of Kenya to legislate a law that will protect our people against sub-standard goods from China. Only yesterday, there was an article in one of the dailies about the Chinese Government saying that it is the Kenyan traders themselves who go there to pick sub- standard goods. I found that very insulting! I do not know any goods from China which are not sub-standard! That is because they have no standards! To them, it is just about money, expansion of the economy and the race against the dollar. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is that kind of thing that Kenyans go through in their daily lives. If you went to a shop and a defective item was sold to you--- You know that across this country, people are crazy about imported things! We have no local industries because we believe that everything must be imported. We believe that imported goods are superior. If you went to a shop and bought a shirt or blanket which is torn in the next day--- In the receipt that you are given, that is if you are ever given, it is written: \"Goods once sold are not returnable\". Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, through this Act, we want to legislate that, if you buy something and it is defective, it is not your responsibility. We will put a certain amount of time within which you can return an item to any trader without any questions being asked. To me, that will not retrogress trade. We want to trade in this country with a human face. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you know that there is no way we can promote local industries, if we open our doors to all goods, good or bad. We need to promote the Jua Kali sector. We need to invest in light industries. But there is no way we can do that, if we are a dumping ground for sub-standard goods that are manufactured across the universe! We must stop that within the law. I want to plead with my colleagues to support me in this endeavour. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also want a body that will teach Kenyans about their consumer rights? For example, who do people living along Nairobi River blame when the river is polluted and people are living there? Sometimes, even the vegetables that we eat in Nairobi are planted along the sewer lines. At what point do we say that enough is enough? At what point do we commit the Government to protect the citizens that it is supposed to protect? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you go to some of those places in Huruma or Kariobangi for that matter, you will find somebody--- Even some hon. Members here have built the so-called \"real estate\". It is eight floors up and the toilet is on the ground floor! Because of lack of housing, somebody who lives on the eighth floor is condemned to live there because there is nowhere else! There is no alternative! We must provide our people with alternatives! We must force unscrupulous investors to do their investments with a human face! If we do not do that, I do not think we will catch up with the rest of the world. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, even here, issues of the disabled and minorities arise. For example, yesterday, I saw a parliamentary staff member coming to the House Business Committee. The gentleman is crippled. He has to go through those stairs and yet, this is one of the heavily-funded institutions in this country! Do you want to tell me or the whole world that this country cannot afford to build a lift to take care of disabled employees in Parliament? It is because April 30, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 759 nobody cares whether you are disabled in Kenya or not! Those are consumers of services and we must force-- If the Government is not willing to do it, the only other way is through legislation. We ought to do that, so that Kenyans can stop being angry at us! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, all across the country, whenever something goes wrong, everybody blames politicians. That is for the right reasons. For one, I really hate living in a country where everybody thinks you are rich because of sucking their blood. It is a sad thing and we can do it. We have the power as Parliament to legislate. We also have the power to force the Government to enforce our legislation. So, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we want to protect Kenyans as consumers. Just the other day, the Minister for Local Government just woke up and said that matatus are not allowed in town. Somebody who lives in Kayole and works in Community--- If you leave him there at Muthurwa, what have you done to that person? And that is the taxpayer! Yet, you come here with your Ministry office and your parliamentary salary and yet, you are \"eating\" the sweat of that person. You do not care how they get to work to make that money that you are salivating for! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think it is very unfair! We must face these issues! We cannot run away from our people any more! We must protect our people! In fact, this Parliament is an endangered institution. That is because all the blame, bad and evil things that are happening out there have correctly been identified with us! They really think that Parliament and the Government are causing all the problems affecting the people of Kenya. I do not think we are working hard enough to protect our people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need to be with our people! Certain things that happen in this society are not accepted anywhere, and we must legislate! Let me give you an example. If you went to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) - and I saw on television last night when the Minister was touring the hospital - you have six Kenyans sharing one bed. Those are consumers of medical services, and they are taxpayers! Where do you want Kenyans to go? If you go to KNH and, half the time, the doctor who is supposed to treat you yuko kule masandukuni ; they are eating their meat and drinking! Nobody is regulating that! You die in their hands and you have nowhere to go! We must do something to stop that impunity! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, some of the equipment which is used to examine the organs of a human body can only be found in Kenyatta National Hospital, the Agan Khan University Hospital or the MP Shah Hospital. If you live in Moyale, Mombasa, Malindi or Kisii, and you have a heart condition, you cannot be treated. You are condemned to die by the Government. Kenyans seem to have figured out that the Government is Parliament because it is Parliament which is supposed to generally check the excesses of the Government. How do Kenyans feel when they read in our daily newspapers, for example, the story in one of our dailies today, about the billions of shillings that the Government will spend? This money is not supposed to purchase a heart examining machine. It is meant to go to the pockets of the parastatal fat cats, many civil servants and some politicians. We must stop the impunity. It is always good that even if we are to eat the cow, we should, at least, leave the calf for the future. All these things amount to corruption. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, last year when I brought this Motion here, the then Minister, Dr. Kituyi, was opposed to its provisions. That is why the Motion never saw the light of day. If what is contained in this Motion had been implemented, in two months, we would have had a better Kenya. We would have had a Kenya where people are not angry with politicians. If I board a matatu at night and I know that the fare from Nairobi City to Langata is Kshs20; it cannot be hiked to Kshs200 and I have nowhere to go to. The body that we seek to create will be like an Ombudsman for consumer protection where people can report cases of matatus who overcharge them for action to be taken. The Government should stop this impunity. This body will not stop the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) from maintaining standards. It will enhance the ability of the 760 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 30, 2008 KEBS to work. Let me talk about the mineral water that we drink, and God forbid, it is more expensive than petrol. We consume a lot of mineral water and most of it is filtered from the tap. Why can the Government not filter water for us? Last week, I was in Europe. If you ask for water in a restaurant, they fetch it from the tap and ask you if you want it with ice or not. If that would happen in Kenya, would we really expend our money in the unnecessary ways that we do? If a bottle of mineral water costs Kshs100, would a person whose salary is Kshs3,000 like a prison warder, afford to buy it? The answer is no. Again, in the same prison, the water they drink is untreated, if it is there. What options are we leaving our citizens with? We must give our people options. We must stop the culture of impunity. This Motion was under the Ministry of Trade and Industry. These are now two Ministries, but none of the Ministers is here. I can see one of them is here. It would be nice to have a Minister here listening to hon. Members talk about issues that affect their constituents. We need to do something. I want to finish and allow the Motion to be seconded. I also want to give the hon. Members an opportunity to contribute. I want to tell hon. Members that this country is looking at us. I was a Member of the Ninth Parliament and Kenyans seemed to say that we were not working. The Bill is basically ready and we will probably just reproduce it with some amendments depending on the contribution of the hon. Members. This is a good beginning. We need to let Kenyans know that this is a different Parliament. Fortunately, I sit in the House Business Committee and I know that this time around, hon. Kituyi will not be there to deny my Bill a chance to be brought to the Floor of the House. Therefore, it will be up to this House to pass it quickly, so that our people can stop suffering. We need to pass this Motion, so that our people can go to the banks and be told that they will never again be charged for giving the banks their money. If you go to a bank - even the Co- operative Bank of Kenya where we bank as Parliamentarians - and cash a cheque, they charge you Kshs1,000. When you ask them why they charged you, they say that it is a mistake. It is so intentional! We live in a country where the Barclays Bank reports profits of Kshs3 billion in an economy which is functioning negatively. What is it manufacturing? This is all based on unscrupulous charges. Nobody follows the Banking Act. All the banks do not. All they are doing is money, money, money! The more money they make, the poorer our people get and nobody cares. Parliament must, for once, care about the people of this country. With those few remarks, I want to ask hon. Abdirahman to second the Motion."
}