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"id": 208538,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Angwenyi",
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"id": 326,
"legal_name": "Jimmy Nuru Ondieki Angwenyi",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me a chance to contribute to this very important Motion. This country has been ravaged by special interests who combine conspiratorial forces to fleece Kenyans. This is because the laws that have been enacted to protect the consumers and poor persons are rarely enforced. This Parliament has been, to some extent, idle. It has not addressed the issues of cartels, conspiracies and fraud. If you go to any of the major supermarkets in this country; the Nakumatts and Woolworths, you can see clearly that there is a cartel-like business. Whenever companies are being sold out by the Government, you can see conspiracy in the sale of public institutions to the private sector. People who are powerful and influential are the ones who are buying most of these institutions. As a result, they set prices without regard to the level of poverty in the country. Let us take the case of sugar, for example. Sugar is a necessity for most families in this country. Therefore, it should be as cheap as possible so that every Kenyan can afford it. But because of this conspiracy and cartel-like businesses, the sugar-cane farmer is paid peanuts. But the refined sugar is sold by these cartels at a very high price. Parliament should move in quickly. I wish hon. Sungu brought this Motion two or three years ago. This is because we would have saved a lot of Kenyans the agony that they go through to access some of the necessities of life. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have said that there is restriction in monopolies. But what would you call the operations of Safaricom Limited and Celtel Limited? They collude and set their prices. The prices of mobile services are the highest in the world. But because we have not recourse, we have got to subscribe to the same service providers. When Safaricom and KenCell came into operation, they were estimating to have 35,000 subscribers in five years. But within one year, their subscription has reached 1,000,000 for each of the companies, yet, the fee that they pay to the State was based on an estimated subscription of 35,000 people. So, the State lost, but because that was an agreement between the influential interest forces, they were able to go scot- free, without paying the increased fee for increased subscription. That is why during the last financial year, Safaricom Limited has been able to reap a record Kshs17 billion in profits. Even the East African Breweries Limited, which has been operating in this country for almost a century, has never made a profit of Kshs17 billion. How do you make a profit of Kshs17 billion, unless you are August 15, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3193 given an environment where you can fix your prices at will, so that they do not have any relationship with the cost of operation? That is why they can make such kind of money. At the same time, as much as this company is raising this type of profit it is not employing Kenyans. Therefore, it is condemning Kenyans into abject poverty. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Uchumi Supermarkets Limited, which is owned by Kenyans, is being fleeced out of the market by these conspiratorial forces, which do not want to operate within the law. I can foresee that, in one to two years, we are going to fleece out sugar-cane farmers in this country, because we are opening up for the importation of cheap sugar from countries which do not use fertilizers for farming; where land is available in plenty and the input in production is almost nothing. We are opening up for this importation because influential forces are going to benefit from it. Already they have set very high prices of sugar. They are fleecing out the farmers so that they can import sugar and make a kill. The people who are involved have become overnight millionaires. People who could not afford a drink five years ago, today, fly in helicopters. This is open to every Kenyan to see! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we used to assemble vehicles in this country, but because of the interests of influential forces, that industry was killed. We now import second-hand vehicles from abroad. Businessmen buy second-hand vehicles from Dubai, Japan or Korea at very reduced prices. But they import them to Kenya and sell them to Kenyans at exorbitant prices. As a result, they have destroyed an industry which employed so many people. The same applies to the textile industry. We have killed our textile industry because of this conspiracy. As a result, the"
}