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"speaker_name": "Prof. Maathai",
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"legal_name": "Wangari Muta Maathai",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this debate. First of all, I want to thank the Minister very much for having addressed the issue of plastics. We know that thin, flimsy plastic bags have been a menace to our environment. We have discussed this issue and raised it in this House many times. Therefore, I want to thank the Minister for requesting companies to increase the thickness of plastic bags they produce, so that we recycle and reuse them. In the process, we would reduce the amount of plastic bags scattered all over the environment. As a matter of fact, in many other countries, governments have gone further than just condemning the thin and flimsy plastics; they have literally banned the production of plastics. Our Government has not gone all the way. However, I want to thank the Government and appeal to companies in this country to participate in cleaning the environment. They should support in ensuring that we have a clean and healthy environment in this country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is not true that companies have not had the time to think about these flimsy plastic bags. We have been discussing it with them even before I came to this House. We have raised this issue here. This issue has also been discussed at the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. We have tried to encourage companies to address this issue. As a matter of fact, as far back as the year 2003, I remember visiting one of the very few companies in this country that recycle plastics. From them, it produces garden furniture and poles that can be used instead of wood. Some companies have gone ahead and seen the need to keep our environment clean. At this time, we are talking about climate change and addressing the fact that fossil fuels; which are products from which we make plastics, are major contributors to the global warming. It is extremely important that companies also play their part. In the environment, we have the principle of polluter-pay. It has already been endorsed by the world. These companies know it. Therefore, instead of complaining, they should be out there, contributing to the cleaning up of all the plastics that we find in the soil, on trees, in rivers, especially in the cities, and literally everywhere in urban centres. I want to appeal to the companies to take this issue seriously because loss of jobs and machines are, but an excuse. I think we should support the Government in taking this measure which, as I said, is only half-way done. We should ensure that our environment is clean. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on job recruitment, I wish the Minister or the Government would ensure that the allocations are done according to constituencies. I am particul arly thinking of the armed forces, the police, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) officers, forestry services and all these organisations which hire young people for training. If the police force is recruiting rather than tell us so many young people will be recruited, let us divide the number according to constituencies, so that every hon. Member of Parliament can get so many persons. They can then go and allocate that number to their own people. This business of going to a district and picking 20 or 30 recruits allows for corruption. Certain hon. Members are able to take more people into the police force or the armed forces than others. Some of us are, therefore, never able to send anybody to training 2032 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 26, 2007 programmes. Let us introduce constituency by constituency allocations. This will make the process more transparent and beneficial to every hon. Member of Parliament. It will also help us avoid accusation by our youth that we are not speaking for them. You send them to the recruitment centre where they run and become number one or two, but they would be told they are too short or thin to be recruited. I would like to commend the Minister for allocating a good amount of money to the Ministry of Health. I want to say that it is extremely important for us to support organisations such as NACADA. This is because one of the most important things that we should really pay attention to is protection of our youth from the misuse of alcohol, cigarettes, drugs and other substances. No matter how much money we, as a Government, spend, if we cannot protect our young people from these hazards they encounter sometimes as early as when they are in primary schools, then we, as leaders, are not doing a good job. The youth are the future. We say this in this House all the time. One way we can protect our young people is by guarding them from misuse of drugs. We sometimes know who introduces these drugs. These young people are not the ones who import drugs into this country. We should invest a lot of money in fighting drugs and alcohol misuse in this country. Some of the problems that we are facing with our young people today, including those who are now involved in killing and harassing wananchi, is a result of having allowed them to be influence by drugs and alcohol when they were very young. We may call them chokoras or whatever they are, when young, but when they grow up and do not have jobs, sooner or later, they become a problem in our society. In this connection, I want to put on record something that I know is not very popular. Nonetheless, I want to put it on record. There is no law in this country that allows anybody to kill another under suspicion. That is a fact! The law allows us to arrest people and charge them in a court of law or investigate until the judges and magistrates are convinced that the person has offended the society by committing a crime. Then they should be accorded the sentence accordingly---"
}