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"id": 196440,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Medical Services",
"speaker": {
"id": 185,
"legal_name": "Danson Buya Mungatana",
"slug": "danson-mungatana"
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"content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, may I take this opportunity to thank Mr. C. Kilonzo for introducing a very timely Motion in this country at this time. I have listened very carefully to what he has pointed out. But I will speak from a rural perspective. When you visit the rural areas, you will see, all over when you are driving towards Garissa and my constituency, a lot of plastic waste littered all over the roads. Plastic is cheap; so the rural folk have used it extensively to carry some little unga, oil and so on. They tie it and use it for various other things. What happens is that there is no control or awareness of what people should do with these pieces of paper once they have used them. There is no law in this country, as we speak now, that tries to control this. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the only thing that people have grown to know is that when cows and goats eat plastic during the dry season they die. The people who manufacture plastic material make it available cheaply to our people. They are not there to bear the burden of environmental degradation and loss of livestock and farmlands that could be used. They produce the plastics in Nairobi very cheaply, and make them available to everyone. The people in the rural areas, where I come from, and where our voters are, pay the price. It is time we had control measures introduced. It is time we had the Plastics Control Bill brought to this House. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is not the first time we have spoken about the issue of controlling the use of plastics in this nation. There was an attempt, indeed, when we passed the last Budget, to introduce taxation measures whose final effect was hoped to control the plastics industry. But it has not worked. In fact, what the manufacturers did was to increase the prices, so that their costs are covered. But the same amount of plastic material still continues to be manufactured in the same way. The amount of plastics which are imported continues to be the same. We need to think again. There is no other body that can do it better than this Parliament. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am imagining that the Plastics Control Bill will come up with a Plastics Control Authority (PCA) that will be set up with certain powers in this country. It will have powers to get into this industries and make sure that it complies with environmental standards, first of all in the production process. I would imagine that this Authority will go out there to retailers to tell them that they must retail plastics at a certain price that will discourage excessive use. This Authority should have prosecutors, who will be appointed through the Attorney-General to prosecute plastic manufacturing industries that deliberately flout the rules that will be produced under the Plastics Control Bill. I imagine that this Authority will carry out massive advertisement to the population of Kenya, so that people can be taught that it is bad manners, not just for yourself, but for our children and our children's children, to throw out plastic waste as you drive around, because the plastics are not bio-degradable. By doing so, we spoil the environment not only for us, but for other people. That Authority will have massive powers to April 16, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 473 change our whole perspective. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I stand here to strongly support that this House should grant leave to introduce the Plastics Control Bill to regulate the production, distribution, consumption, recycling and disposal of plastics in the country. I urge Members to help us quickly pass this Motion. It is timely, good and for all of us. It is a very patriotic Motion."
}