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"id": 238083,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Syongo",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to take this opportunity to thank His Excellency the President. A few days ago, the police, including the GSU were mobilised to beat up hawkers and destroy their merchandise, cause grievous bodily harm to very many of those young enterprising Kenyans. His Excellency the President came out very clearly during his Kenyatta Day speech, in support of the hawkers. If I may quote him, he said: \"Hawkers are an important part of this nation. They are hardworking and, therefore, they should be supported.\" I could not have found better support for this Motion from the Government than the statement the President made during that Speech. Secondly, I want to reassure the Ministry of Trade and Industry that this initiative will be of great benefit to that Ministry. I want to allay the fears of the Minister for Trade and Industry that there will not be any duplication of functions. It is true that there are departments within the Ministry which are responsible for carrying out some of these tasks. It is true that there are certain secretariats and even desk officers, but the fact remains that their functions are totally unco- ordinated and there is a lot of internal conflict in the performance of their duties. There are a lot of territorial wars between those departmental heads and officers. The result is that there is total inefficiency and chaos in the performance of these very important functions. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the case of external trade, there is the Export Promotion Council and the Director of External Trade. Their functions are not harmonised. Nobody is specifically responsible for the Trade attaches who are posted outside. This Motion and the Bill that will be brought as a result of the approval of this Motion by this House will create the External Trade Authority responsible for co-ordinating all these functions, the policy and legislative framework, so that we have a single stop as far as external trade development is concerned. We will have a similar authority in charge of internal trade which will be not only in charge of co-ordinating policy, but also addressing the issue of physical development, putting up premises and developing business parks so that our traders in various categories can have accommodation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is so painful to see young Kenyans trained in our polytechnics producing world class furniture but they have nowhere to trade them other than the roadside where they gather dust. The prospective buyers are afraid to approach them because they October 25, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3123 could actually be run down by motor vehicles. The creation of an internal trade authority will deal with all those aspects relating to internal trade activities and policies as well as the legislation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I support hon. Wetangula for actually reminding this House that in some countries the Chamber of Commerce is an extremely important institution. Here, they operate without any legal or statutory framework and so it is not surprising that we see the kind of chaos as far as this Chamber is concerned. Even recently, if you remember, there was a war of words between the Minister for Trade and Industry and the Chief Executive and Chairman of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) in terms of their responsibilities and roles. Even though the Minister tried to use his authority to bring order into the KNCCI, he lacked the legal authority to intervene. This Motion will now deal with that problem so that there is co-ordination, consultative arrangement and forum for the Ministry or the Government to deal with the issues. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank hon. Githae. He made some fantastic remarks. It is a pity, and hon. Wetangula also mentioned it, that the Mauritius and Malaysian models were actually borrowed from Kenya. Malaysia and Mauritius simply took the Kenya External Trade Authority (KETA) policy document and went and created a KETA with a different name in their countries and they are out performing us using our own ideas. One of the reasons why KETA died is because it has no statutory and it was not created by an Act of Parliament. If it had, then we would not have had the problems that we have gone through during all this period when we have seriously under-performed in terms of growing the internal trade sector as well our external or export trade sectors. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to assure this House, and all stakeholders, that the drafting and preparation of the Bill will be a consultative effort. All stakeholders will be consulted and the ideas that have come out on the Floor of this House and others that will come out of deliberations as well as consultations with other stakeholders, including Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), and the local authorities, will be brought on board so that we have a comprehensive and internally consistent piece of legislation which can drive this country's economy to the next decade. With those remarks, I beg to move."
}