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{
    "id": 238076,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/238076/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 222,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is what we should be looking at. The Somalis look after cattle in the northern part of Kenya. However, when they want to sell their cattle, who buys it? It is somebody else from outside this country to export and make the money. My Ministry of Foreign Affairs has now embarked on serious economic related diplomacy. We want all our missions to be responsive to the changing times and support issues of trade. It is only through that direction that this country can grow. Uganda is our No.1 trading partner. Perhaps, Mr. Syongo may have given the statistics to tell us who in this country trades with Uganda. How are Kenyans benefitting from this, apart from money coming to the Exchequer to deal with other activities? So, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the whole Motion is very sound. I wish Mr. Syongo framed it in such a way that we establish an authority that will harmonise the fractured existing legislation dealing with trade. We have the Restrictive Trade Practices Act, the Export Promotion Act, the Trade Disputes Act and other Acts. We need to have a co-ordination authority established by law to bring harmony to all these fractured legislations so that we have a one-stop shop that will deal with matters of external and internal trade and matters that will bring into focus the National Chamber of Commerce. When you talk of the National Chamber of Commerce anywhere, if you go to Japan today, the chairperson of the National Chamber of Commerce is as important, if not more important than the Minister for Trade and Finance put together. If you go to Germany, it is the same thing. In Kenya, who are the leaders of the National Chamber of Commerce? Hawkers! These are fellows who know nothing about commerce. All they do is fight from the first day they get into office. I do not even think the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade in this country has ever held a meeting with the National Chamber of Commerce to discuss anything to do with trade. Foreigners come to our offices wanting to meet representatives from the National Chamber of Commerce, but we do not know where to send them. We need a legal framework that will set a proper criteria as to who should be the leaders of the National Chamber of Commerce, what their mandate is, what their relationship to the Central Government is and other arms of Government so that they can assist local Kenyans to help the growth of trade. I have been to some areas in this country where you find the local bicycle repairer is the chairman of the local chamber of commerce. When you talk about issues of trade, they hardly know anything about it. We are not looking down upon our brothers who repair bicycles, but the brief is beyond the person. We need to have a co-ordinated approach to this issue because trade and 3120 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 25, 2006 commerce now rule the world. Whether we are talking of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the African-Caribbean Pacific and the European Union (ACP-EU), the Southern Africa Development Co-operation (SADC), the East African Community or the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), all these are matters of trade. Without a co-ordinated approach, we will not be able to benefit. I want to inform my colleague in the Ministry that the devil will be in the detail and the detail can come later on. I think Mr. Syongo has given an assurance that whatever ideas the Ministry has, they can sit down, discuss them and see how best they can bring this noble idea to fruition. If we take that approach, we will be proactive and helpful to the people who elected us to this House. It is Kenyans who really matter. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support this Motion."
}