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{
    "id": 209902,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/209902/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 125,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Syongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 316,
        "legal_name": "Zaddock Madiri Syong'oh",
        "slug": "zaddock-syongoh"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, my two colleagues are communists and I admire them for being that. They do not have to apologise for being communists. It is a fact that parastatal establishments were established using taxpayers' money. For a number of years, some of them, which did not perform profitably, were sustained through subsidies using taxpayers' money. The real shareholders of all parastatals are Kenyan taxpayers. The Government is simply an agent of those taxpayers. Therefore, I support the idea that, in the event of privatising, and disposing of these assets, the public must be consulted and must be involved in giving the final approval before the disposal of the assets. There is no better assembly of representatives of the public and the taxpayers than Parliament, as established by the Constitution of the Republic of Kenya. These parastatals, when in operation, have significant impact on the livelihood of suppliers of various inputs which sustain them. They have heavy impact on the consumers of their services and, in the welfare of their employees and families of those employees. It is only fair, again, that in August 8, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3041 the event of a decision to privatise, these stakeholders ought to be involved and their views sought, so that the terms and conditions of divestiture, or privatisation of these assets, takes into account the views of all those it affects. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, under the current law, the exercise of negotiating the terms and conditions of divestiture, or privatising these assets, is a private affair, in the sense that negotiating is done behind closed doors. Those who negotiate and identify the so-called \"strategic partners\" or \"investors\" are but a small number of people, who are essentially at the Treasury and the institutions within the Treasury. As you saw last night, yesterday they met the so-called \"investors\" in, I believe, Telkom Kenya Ltd. If you watched news yesterday, it was just a small number of people making conclusive deals on the privatisation of assets and institutions that belong to the taxpayers of this country; behind closed doors."
}