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"id": 196459,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/196459/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. M'Mithiaru",
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"speaker": {
"id": 72,
"legal_name": "Ntoitha M'mithiaru",
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"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. My name is Mr. Ntoitha M'Mithiaru, Member of Parliament for Igembe North. I wish to add my comment on the Motion on the Plastic Control Bill. We all know that plastic materials are an eyesore when it comes to our streets, estates and everywhere we go because they are littered all over the place. It becomes an environmental nuisance. It is something that needs to be controlled. All we should ask is: why do we have all these plastic materials? We start with the usage from the industries to the individuals. When we go to our supermarkets, we get our wares packaged or wrapped in those April 16, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 481 plastic bags. When we buy household items, we also find that they are in plastic cans and other forms of plastics. So, it is a necessity. If it is a necessity, we have to live up with it unless we have some other alternative technology as the Member for Tigania West mentioned earlier on. It brings us now to the issue of disposal. That is now the pertinent issue when it comes to the Bill once it is brought to the House. The disposal is where now the controls would come in. The disposal would also mean that we would bring up the issues of recycling, so that the users of these plastic materials have ways and means of disposal, either by burning or by collecting them, so that they can be recycled for some other end product all together. I would wish the Mover of this Motion to also address other issues that we need to be clear about. When we talk about plastic materials, I stand to be corrected, the definition of terms should be very clear. Plastic should also include polythene bags, elastics and rubbers. Today, we even know of the second hand vehicles that are so many in Kenya today. The components of those vehicles, the bulk of it are plastic materials. I think when it comes to the definition of the term, we should be clear, so that, at least, we do not have any ambiguity. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the proliferation of plastic cans in rural areas is a result of poverty. Therefore, we may address this issue of plastics, but we also have to address the use of plastics in reference to poverty. In rural areas women fetching water will use plastic cans. Take even estates in Nairobi, we keep so many plastic containers in the house. This is because of water shortage, and we must have a way of storing water. These are the issues that I am saying we must address as we address this issue of plastics. If you go to hospitals, drugs that are in liquid form are given in plastic bottles. They are all taken to homes. Once children finish the medicine, the small plastic bottles litter all over the place. Besides being a health nuisance, they are also a danger even to the children. Children may even start putting water in the small bottles and consuming it. This can be very disastrous, because they could consume poisonous substances in the process. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you go to butcheries in rural areas, they use the white polythene bags to carry meat to the consumers. All these issues should be considered. How do we have all those plastics--- I think plastics should mean polythene bags and all that. How do we have them disposed off? They are all over the place, in rural areas, urban centres and houses. How can we have them collected, so that their disposal can be controlled? I am sure that these are the issues this Bill will address. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we must also think of the other close substitutes that can be used for wrapping and packaging, especially of the consumable in houses. It should be something that is also not soluble, so that we do not have a lot of wastage. I think these are issues that the mover of the Motion will address. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}