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"id": 241344,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Arungah",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to support this Motion. This Ministry deals mainly with two areas: trade and industry. In the area of trade, I would like to commend the Minister, just like my colleagues have done, for the job that he has done in leading negotiations in various forums internationally. What is often forgotten is that the Minister is surrounded by a very able team that has always supported him in the course of doing his work. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to thank the Minister, in particular, for successfully negotiating for the extension of safeguard measures in the sugar industry because, as you know, many farmers in Western Province depend on sugar and the extension is going to go a long way in supporting their livelihoods. I know that the Minister was instrumental in negotiating the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) facility, which has been useful in supporting various farmers in this country. Unfortunately, we have a situation where this country has a potential to produce more than 300,000 bales of cotton but although this facility was negotiated, the country has not 2320 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 25, 2006 taken advantage to urge farmers to produce enough so that it can take full advantage of the opportunity offered by AGOA. But I am hoping that with the passing of The Cotton (Amendment) Bill the other day, this will facilitate the country's farmers to access and make better use of this facility. The Ministry has done a very good job in sensitizing the business community in terms of availing to them information about trade opportunities in East Africa, in the COMESA region and, indeed, in the rest of the world. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to the promotion of trade, my colleagues have talked about commercial attaches. I will not repeat what they have said. Having commercial attaches is one thing, but we must facilitate them to be able to function properly. We must give them working telephone lines and transport, including giving them the information they need. I have had the opportunity to visit some of those countries and some of the attaches I talked to have no idea where to source whatever materials that may be required in their respective countries. I would like to suggest to the Ministry that each commercial attache must justify their stay in each station. For example, there is a trend in this country where various officers are being subjected to performance contracts. I would like to urge the Minister to insist that if a commercial attache goes to a place and the trade level stood at Kshs\"X\" billion, he must be able to increase that by a certain percentage in a given time so that he can justify his presence in a given station. We do not want to take people out there just to enjoy themselves. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if I was to debate the Vote of the Ministry in the context of the people of Khwisero, I would be inclined to oppose it. At the end of the day, if this Ministry was scrapped, my people of Khwisero would probably not feel it unless the Minister can explain how we are benefitting from his Ministry. The only benefit we used to get from this Ministry was many years ago when the Ministry used to send some money to the District Loans Boards and my people would go and borrow from time to time. I think it is now more than ten to 15 years and this facility does not exist. Therefore, the people we are claiming we want to support have no access to credit. I would like to urge the Minister, now that he has been given almost no money, that he must find other ways of helping our people, even if it means he has to negotiate with a bank or talk to the Minister for Finance to provide a special fund and make it available at district level so that the farmers and traders in our communities can have access to credit which will enable them to carry on with their businesses. The Minister said that there are about 13 parastatals under his Ministry. I would like to single out one of them; The Kenya Wine Agencies Ltd (KWAL). We have brews in this country which our forefathers have been consuming with varying degrees of danger, for example, chang'aa and busaa . The KWAL has facilities to collect all the chang'aa that is brewed in this country, process it and make it safe for our people to drink the same way it is done in Uganda and Tanzania. We are made of the same flesh and skin. Ugandans are taking waragi while the Tanzanians are taking konyagi and they are safe, but we have left our people to consume those dangerous drinks. Instead of the KWAL importing their raw materials from elsewhere, they could source them right from the coast to the border in Busia by collecting all those dangerous stuff, process it, make it safe for the consumption by our people and get tax revenue from it. I would like to urge the Minister to look into that possibility because we need to support our people at the grassroots level. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the area of industry, like my colleagues mentioned, if you go to a place like Dubai, there is nothing there except a desert. I would like the Ministry to look seriously into the concept of the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) because we are strategically placed as a country and we have a wonderful port in Mombasa. All we need to do is to go out of our way to attract people to come and start manufacturing there. Instead of the old-fashioned way of depending on duty collection, we should let people come here and set up companies in the EPZs and our people will be employed there. So many people will come from the region to negotiate July 25, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2321 deals with the manufacturers there. Simply from the arrivals, hotel facilities will increase, more food will be sold and our farmers are going to benefit. Even though the Ministry has been given Kshs400 million, which is nothing, as far as I am concerned, the Ministry should not just sit back. They should take the opportunity to sensitize people and reach out to them because the issue of industry is directly under their purview. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I complete giving my contribution, I would like to talk about the issue of Uchumi Supermarkets. I would like to commend the Minister for the effort he put in to rescue Uchumi Supermarkets. Uchumi is a national name and we should be proud of it. But I would like to urge the Minister that, as he rescues Uchumi Supermarkets, because he talked earlier about coming out with policies, he should introduce a legislation where in some cases, we are able to protect some of our commercial enterprises against bankruptcy. We know that given time and a sensible rescue plan, companies or commercial enterprises that may be in trouble should be given time to sort out themselves instead of us hurrying to wind them up with the consequences of our farmers or suppliers losing a lot of money. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}