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"id": 208513,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/208513/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Sungu",
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"speaker": {
"id": 324,
"legal_name": "Gor Eric Sungu",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. However, since I did not complete moving the Motion itself let me start again. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the objectives of this Motion is to encourage competition by prohibiting restrictive trade practices, regulating monopolies and acquisitions, reducing entry barriers to business and discouraging concentration of economic power by a few against the interests of the many. Thus a new law, if passed by Parliament, will emphasise reducing entry August 15, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3183 barriers and discouraging vertical and horizontal acquisitions and mergers. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the pillars of basic consumer rights is the right to choose from a wide variety of quality goods and services at competitive prices. Therefore, this Bill will eliminate abuse by a few firms and individuals holding dominant power or shares in the market and would also prohibit anti-competitive practices. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, currently, the only law applicable is the Restrictive Trade Practices, Monopolies and Price Control Act (Cap.504 of the Laws of Kenya) which became effective in January, 1989. This law has not been revised to date, despite the liberalisation of the economy. The reasons for this domination of business by a few \"political fat cats\" who have continued to influence any meaningful changes to the laws of this country is because of the protection of political interests, which naturally flow from domination of the economic process. Therefore, we aim to enable these \"fat cats\", who virtually own most of the business concerns in Kenya in favour of the poor of this country--- Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Motion raises issues of ownership of firms. For example, recently, we have had issues with regard to the ownership of Safaricom. There have been questions about the 5 per cent shareholding in Safaricom, which is not known. We know the Government owns certain shares and the private investors also own another part of the shares. We know, for sure, because we have been in this country all this time. At the initial stage, when Safaricom was being raised as a company and when they were given licence to operate as the first mobile service provider in this country, powerful individuals, who were in the very centre and pinnacle of power in the then Government, connived and were given 10 per cent of the shareholding of Safaricom. When that Government went out of power, these same people, to protect their interests, gave another 5 per cent of their shareholding, to remain with 5 per cent, to people who again are at the very centre and pinnacle of power in this country. This kind of situation is not acceptable. This amounts to influencing unfairly because we know for sure that the initial 10 per cent was never paid for by anybody. I challenge anybody who has the facts to prove me otherwise. Mobitelea never paid anything. It was like influencing them to give them the monopoly rights at that time on the first mobile service provider in the country. The same trend has continued. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are also indications that the same individuals own similar shareholding in Celtel. That is why charges obtaining in the mobile telephone industry are so high. That is why, in America, Europe and other countries, you buy pre-paid units in terms of minutes. In Kenya, you continue to buy in terms of money. There is no way of proving how long telephone units worth Kshs500 last. More often than not, it gets finished before you know it. There are invisible charges that these people have colluded to charge and because of that the cost of mobile telephone services in this country is too high compared to anywhere else in the world. This Parliament must come out and protect the interests of Kenyans. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are a number of challenges that we aim at if Parliament so authorises to create an independent authority to reflect mergers and acquisitions, widen the market space to allow for entry of more Kenyans into the market, so that they can be part and parcel of the economy and to protect the consumer against discriminatory pricing. These are issues like tie- purchasing. For example, when there are sugar shortages, you will find that a shopkeeper might force a consumer to buy something extra in addition, so that he could be given the sugar. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, retail price maintenance is another issue which must be considered if we have to protect the consumer against discriminatory practices. Some of these companies own inordinately large shares of the market. We have just had Questions about tendering and so on. The fact that only a few powerful people own the largest companies, for example in the construction industry, leads to collusive tendering and bidding, to the extent that contractors can actually agree that--- 3184 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 15, 2007"
}