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"speaker_name": "Mr. Muturi",
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"legal_name": "Justin Bedan Njoka Muturi",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I hope this time I will not be cut short like the other time. I want to begin by saying that I support and, indeed, want to encourage the Minister to continue in this way. He should bring all relics of colonialism into this House for repeal, so that we can forget them. I am saying this because, as we realise, a lot of the laws that are captured here are being proposed to be repealed and, or, amended in order to bring them into line with modern day September 18, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 4003 practices in a good business environment. Some were enacted quite some time back. For instance, if you look at the first one, the Industrial Alcohol Possession Act, Cap.119 of the Laws of Kenya, surely to criminalise possession of industrial alcohol does not make a lot of sense. I think it is important that we repeal it, and we should be doing this much more regularly. Some of the proposals that the Minister has presented, of course, have come from the other Ministries like the Ministry of State for Immigration and Registration of Persons. More particularly, the Minister says that the Bill proposes to amend the Industrial Training Act so as to reform the Industrial Training Levy. However, he has not quite explained how he hopes to reform that levy. But even though the labour Bills have been shelved for quite sometime now, I am only hoping that the purported reform here is to be in touch or tandem with what is contained in those Bills. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on page 1997, there is a proposal to amend the Irrigation Act so as to abolish the cess levied under the Act. Is it hoped that it would spur the development in the irrigation sub-sector in the country? We need the Minister to explain some of these things. Indeed, there is also the Fertilizers and Foodstuffs Act which is sought to be amended so as to increase the time of validity of licences issued under the Act from one year to three years. What is the mischief that is sought to be corrected? What was the problem with the one-year period? We appreciate that there is need for reforms and that is a continuous exercise, but it is important for the Minister to explain some of these things to us. There is also an amendment to the Lakes and Rivers Act to extend the validity of the licences issued under the Act from one year to three years. What type of licences are these? How do you want the country to benefit from these proposed amendments? The intention of the proposal to amend the Restrictive Trade Practices and Monopolies Act is so as to abolish the various certificates required to be granted under the Act. Is the Minister convinced that all those certificates or just a few of them are necessary? He is not saying \"all the certificates.\" He says, \"so as to abolish the various certificates.\" So, it means that there is somebody like the Price Control Commissioner - as used to be called in the older days - who is going to be responsible for determining which certificates are going to be abolished. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the most interesting one which I really want to applaud the Minister for having sought to abolish is the Motor Vehicle Components and Accessories Act. The very interesting bit about that piece of legislation, which I think should be scrapped, is because it provides for some very interesting requirement; that no person shall deal with any motor vehicle component or accessories unless he is a licensed dealer and shall only do so between the hours of 6.00 a.m. and 6.30 p.m., when we are having supermarkets running for 24 hours. I would want to applaud the Minister for having seen the necessity to repeal some of these obnoxious provisions. Because like all the others that have come to this House, this Bill has also come with lightning speed, I do not want to take a lot of time. I beg to support."
}