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"speaker_name": "Mr. Weya",
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"legal_name": "Sammy Arthur Weya",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to say one or two things with regard to the regulation of the tobacco industry within this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, from the outset, I want to say that I support the regulation of the tobacco industry. I want to make this very clear. I also want to make it very clear that tobacco is harmful to human health. However, we have to take into account the many things that happen around us. We should also look at what neighbouring countries are doing. If we are not careful as a country, we might find the tobacco industry going to dogs. We need to be very careful when addressing this issue. Apart from tobacco, even alcohol kills our people. We also have other things like HIV/AIDS which are big killers of our people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of my concerns is that if we are going to take this Bill as it is, we might just ban tobacco use completely. We should say that Kenya will not allow tobacco use at all. Just ban it! That will be the best option if this Bill is going to pass the way it is. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we know that most cigarettes in this country are sold by retailers as single sticks. As an hon. Member, I have to look at both sides. I represent smokers, non-smokers and farmers who grow tobacco. So, I have to take a general view. It is important for me to protect those under the age of 18 years, because they are minors. That is my key responsibility as an hon. Member. I also have to give those over the age of 18 years the freedom to make a choice. They should choose whether they want to drink alcohol and be reckless in their behaviour. You cannot curtail the freedom of someone who is over the age of 18 years. They should choose whether to go to a disco or not, or whether to drink beer or not. That is not my responsibility as an hon. Member. My responsibility ends when a person attains the age of 18 years. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I say this because even illicit brews in this country are found in the underworld. If you go to Uganda, you will find that the community has taken the responsibility of making their local brews available to the whole society, instead of them being for the underdogs only. They are now taxed. Uganda gets tax from the waragi. Even our neighbours, Tanzania, have allowed their society to consume their local brews. In that way, they are able to regulate quality, the way it is consumed and get tax. It controls the society as a whole. When you allow some of these things to exist only in the underworld, the results are disastrous. Quality control is not taken into consideration. For example, chang'aa brewers mix their drinks with other chemicals. You can imagine if cigarettes go the same way. The health dangers will be three times what we are looking at today. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we talk about the First World countries. I have had an opportunity to go there and see what happens. Cigarette smoking in the First World is a disaster. Everybody smokes; children, women and parents. You will find parents smoking with their children! It does not cause as much concern as we have in Third World countries like Kenya. If a woman is seen smoking in our society, people look at her with bad eyes. She is even given bad names because she smokes. In the First World countries, when a woman smokes, it is acceptable. So, you find that women who smoke in our country hide when smoking. The same thing happens with children, unlike in the First World where they do it in the open. That is something that we need to look into. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have a quarrel with the WHO. Recently, it lifted the ban on the use of DichloroDiphenylTrichloroethane (DDT) after 20 years. Whose concerns did the WHO take into account? We must be very clear. Twenty years ago, in the USA and Europe, this product called DDT was used to eradicate malaria. If you go to Europe now, you will not find malaria. Then, in the Third World countries, it said it had banned use of DDT. Twenty years later, it is saying that it wants to lift the ban. Millions of our people have died over the last 20 years from malaria. This was because they were not allowed to use DDT, even though the Americans and 3724 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 15, 2006 people in Europe used it. Now, WHO is telling us it has lifted the ban on DDT. We must also query what these foreigners are doing. I know for sure that in a country like the United States of America (USA), its excess cotton and tobacco are bought by the government. The government buys all excess tobacco and cotton and keeps it. Even if there is no market for it, they just keep it. Will the Third World countries' governments have the capacity to do that? Do they even have the capacity to destroy these products, if they have to? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, will a country like ours be able to create regulations the way the First World countries do? How are you going to put \"no smoking\" and \"smoking\" signs in kiosks and small bars in a rural area? You may have a small local bar in rural areas without space for such signs, yet that is where people can afford to drink. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we know that a kiosk owner makes a profit of between Kshs100 and Kshs200 a day, yet you are telling him that he will be fined Kshs20,000 if caught selling cigarettes. Are you telling me that, that is realistic? It could be possible in Europe because a kiosk owner in Europe makes Kshs20,000 in a day. In Kenya, does he make that amount in a day? The maximum he can make in a day is Kshs200. When looking at this man, let us look at him within the Kenyan situation. The tobacco industry is dominated by a multinational, and I agree that we might need to increase the fines for manufacturers. However, we must be realistic when suggesting fines for ordinary Kenyans. Sixity-five per cent of these people are poor. They cannot even afford filtered cigarettes. They smoke Rooster and the cheapest brands in the market. In rural areas, people cannot even afford this; they take tobacco from the farm, role it in a newspaper piece and smoke it. Most cigarettes are smoked in towns. If you go to my rural areas you will find that cigarette smoking is not a concern. It is not a problem at that level. Very few people smoke in the community I come from. I can vouch for that. However, you find that those who do, smoke sokota . They roll tobacco in pieces of newspapers and smoke it. Mr.Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you have heard the Assistant Minister say that Kenya uses Kshs18 billion to treat cigarette-related diseases. I do not think that, that is a realistic figure. Let us look at the Ministry of Health budget. The figure that the Assistant Minister has given is not realistic. Although he may decide to protect it, it is not realistic. We should look at the total budget of the Ministry of Health in relation to HIV/AIDS, typhoid and malaria. The figure of Kshs18 billion does not account for buying drugs and paying staff."
}