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"id": 241973,
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"speaker_name": "Prof. Maathai",
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"legal_name": "Wangari Muta Maathai",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this Motion. I want to congratulate hon. Midiwo for bringing this Motion to the House. It is long overdue. Perhaps, one reason why we have not brought a Motion like this one to the House before is the fact we have always perceived ourselves as consumers of goods that we do not produce. Therefore, we depend on other countries to control the quality of the goods that we consume. We are also beginning to manufacture goods and it is very important that we make sure that the consumer is protected. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I often look at goods, especially drinks from Britain, which have the symbol of OHMS; On Her Majesty's Service, and I often think of the pain that the country must have gone through before they decided to control, for example, the consumption of alcohol to the extent that the producer of alcohol had to be appointed by the Queen or the King. When I think of that, I think of how many lives we have lost in this country, or the misery we have caused our people from the consumption of substandard alcoholic drinks like chang'aa . I wonder how long it will take us to get our own \"OHMS\" symbol. We should have a certain level of self- respect and pride, so that we deliberately and consciously protect our people. Ordinary people cannot protect themselves. They will always look for alternatives. People in this country were denied the right to brew their own traditional alcoholic drinks and for many years, it was a criminal offence to brew local brews. This was done deliberately, so that people would consume beers from the Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL). Unfortunately, people started July 19, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2197 brewing the traditional brews using illegal means. We should legalise the brewing of traditional brews, so that they can be produced properly and become cheaper for the poor people. If you force everybody to drink beer from the KBL or other expensive alcoholic drinks, you will be condemning the poor man to continue consuming the destructive alcoholic drinks, which have caused a lot of damage to our people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, our young people have also started drinking these alcoholic drinks. When they fail to get employment, they literally destroy themselves by drinking these cheap unhygienic alcoholic drinks. It is very important for us to form a body that will not only have the legal mechanisms, but also the financial support to make sure that we get our own \"OHMS\". We will not achieve this unless we get rid of corruption. It is amazing that very knowledgeable people, who ought to be protecting the less knowledgeable people, are the ones who are marketing sub-standard goods corruptly. These include the cheap alcoholic drinks. If we are not going to make sure that our people are protected, then we have no business calling ourselves governors. When you are in Government, one of the things that you really must do is to protect the weak and the vulnerable. This Consumer Protection Bill is necessarily for the vulnerable group, because most other people can check, read the labels, know what is bad and do not have to go and drink chang'aa . But it is the common people that we in Government are supposed to protect. Recently, we threw away a very good idea that was brought here and I hope it will come back again. This was in connection with GMOs. Although GMOs are not necessarily pollutants, I think that a Consumer Protection Bill would ensure that this country is not made a guinea pig by companies who will come here and apply products that are produced in the laboratories. Right now, to my amazement, we have allowed research on GMOs to be done in our research institutions, and yet this House has not passed a law to control that kind of research. That is the kind of negligence that we in Government should not be caught with. We are supposed to protect our people. If anybody does research on GMOs and takes the product and goes and does some application for experimentation down in the rural areas, one would have to have a very high moral ground to protect the people with whom he is working and to even inform the Government that they are doing this experimentation. But we all know that we have some researchers who do not have that kind of moral uprightness. So, we need a law. If anybody was doing that today, we would have no way of stopping such a person because we have no law. This Consumer Protection Bill would ensure that when people do research such as with GMOs, they are not allowed to go out there and experiment with our people. When, for example, we get GMO foods, it should be labelled so that people can surely know that they are eating GMO foods. In this country, most of our people cannot read and write, let alone read and write English, yet most labels in this country are in English. Is it that we do not understand that our people cannot read these labels? Since we do not have a body like this, who then protects the people? Who ensures that the ordinary people are protected from inhaling pollutants? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I hope that with the passing of this Bill, we shall, as a Government, take this matter very seriously and implement it as soon as possible, and have some kind of self respect. There are people who produce goods that sell themselves all over the world. I have not seen any German in our country trying to convince us that we should buy a Mercedes Benz. As a matter of fact, many people would say if it is made in Germany, it is likely to be excellent. I wish and hope that one day, we shall be in a position where we, Kenyans, can be so proud of ourselves and what we can produce, that we shall do anything that is needed in order to protect not only ourselves, but also to give ourselves the kind of name that we ought to have \" Made 2198 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 19, 2006"
}