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{
    "id": 220685,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/220685/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 321,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Tarus",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Office of the President",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 315,
        "legal_name": "Stephen Kipkiyeny Tarus",
        "slug": "stephen-tarus"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance to contribute to this very important Bill. I want to congratulate the Minister for having managed to bring a Bill on occupational safety and health. For a very long time, we have developed, as a country, but we have never taken a lot of interest in ensuring that the conditions and environment under which the workers of Kenya work are conducive. If you evaluate both the public and private sectors, you will realise that the Kenyan workers have actually been working under inhuman conditions. Even within public institutions, you will find that, for example, a driver can be retired on medical grounds after being involved in an accident. To add pain to that injury again, that person is not paid his terminal dues. This is an experience I got recently. Naturally, we would expect that if there is an occupational accident that has occurred as a result of the person being at the work place, the institution would ensure that, that person is treated and compensated. I know that we have laws relating to workers' compensation, but I think that this Bill is very important not only for the workers, but also for the general public. We have different companies and institutions in the country, for example. They have under their own development--- For example, Baraton University in my constituency, has developed a sewage without putting in place proper mechanisms to ensure that it does not pose any occupational hazards to the people living there. Even the workers who work there are not given the appropriate protective equipment. Therefore, I want to congratulate the Minister for bringing this Bill. It is long overdue. It should have come much earlier. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to thank the Minister for having specified the responsibilities of every employer or the so-called occupiers referred to in this Bill. I only hope that with the passage of this Bill, this information will be made available to every institution. I also hope that it will be mandatory for every institution to observe these laws. I am happy that the Minister has said that in every institution, there should be committees established on occupational health and safety, because you will realise that whenever workers are involved in accidents at their work places, they are the ones who always lose."
}