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{
"id": 241972,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/241972/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
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"speaker": {
"id": 195,
"legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
"slug": "raila-odinga"
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Assistant Minister will have his time to respond. The point I was making was that in areas where KEBS officials go for inspection, they do it not because they want to monitor compliance, but for their own selfish gains. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister must address the issue of corruption at Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS). Why else would he be making wild allegations against KEBS, if they are doing a good job? We would like to commend them for the good job they are doing. But I am saying that, at the moment, they have fallen far short of our expectations! The consumers in this country are being cheated. There used to be an association of consumers, which is now defunct. We need to have a strong movement of consumers in this country that will protect innocent people against consumption of sub-standard goods. We are talking about general standards of consumer goods. Those are goods like textiles, chemicals, drugs and food in general. Those goods affect the health of our people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, our people also need to get value for their money. If 2196 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 19, 2006 you buy something, it should serve the purpose for which it was intended. It should be durable. That has not been the case. The consumer has nowhere to complain. This Motion is calling for the establishment of an institution that will provide an ordinary consumer with an avenue to complain. That cannot be done by KEBS. It is not an institution where you can go and complain generally. We must have a backup institution. In Britain, that role is played by the British Consumer Association. We have similar institutions in the United States of America (USA), Japan, Germany and most of the developed countries. I do not see any reason why we should not have the same. This is an idea whose time has come. Consumerism is a strong movement. It is a movement that protects the society against exploitation by unscrupulous businessmen. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, businessmen will always want to make money. To them, there is nothing like ethics, so long as they can make money. They will sell whatever they want to sell. Sometimes, they even sell you rotten oranges. You will just be seeing the outer part of the orange. Once you find out that it is a rotten orange, the business person does not care. We need to have a way of dealing with that kind of situation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, our motor vehicles are ending lives almost everyday. We have the issue of pollution in our society. There is too much emission of noxious gases in our air. Nairobi is a very polluted city. When you drive along Haile Sellasie Avenue and look down the city, you will see a lot of pollution. That translates into us having very high levels of pollutants in our blood streams. We have reached a stage where we need to have an institution that will monitor all those things. Otherwise, there are people who are dying because of environmental pollution without other people realising. What they did in China is that big vehicles have mufflers just above the driver. So, if there is excessive smoke, the driver will inhale it first, before he emit it. But the ones we have here emits the smoke at the tail. They blow it against the vehicles behind them. That way, you inhale a lot of pollution. The drivers in China must ensure that they do not pollute the environment. Some of these things can be factored in at the design level, if you have a strong consumer movement in the country. With those few remarks, I beg to strongly support this Motion."
}