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{
    "id": 393723,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/393723/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 134,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "TSS Limited are all on the verge of closing down any time. It is a tragedy indeed to realize that we allowed these firms to close down, thus losing our clothing industry. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there was the famous Raymond Woolen Mills in Eldoret where the top prime shops in London would get the suits made, and then they would be sold to the top buyers there in London. I am told that even some Africans would leave Nairobi to go and buy the best suits in London only to discover that they were made at home. All they had to do was just to drive to Eldoret here to get the suits. That story is gone; what happened? Because of the way we never paid attention. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, today, so many of our armed or uniformed officers – the army, police, prison officers and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) game wardens; name all of them – plus even our own nurses and people working in the hospitals; their uniforms is made from fabric or textiles which no longer come from our factories here. We came up with a very interesting law called Public Procurement and Disposal Act, which gave some people leeway to go and source fabrics from outside. So, you find that our own consumers, instead of going to buy from our industries here, they go to source them from India and, so, you directly export jobs to India. This results in foreign exchange flows to that country yet we could easily do it here. Let me quote one example we have ignored for long. In Nakuru, we have a firm called Pedi Limited; they produce all the colours and all the types of uniforms for our uniformed officers or disciplined forces if you want. RIVATEX do the same and they even have samples hanging at the entrance for you to see that they can make them. But countries like Tanzania buy all their police, military and prison officers’ uniforms from Pedi in Nakuru while the Kenya Government does not buy theirs there. Uganda also buys all those uniforms from Pedi in Nakuru while the Kenya Government does not. Zambia buys the same uniforms for their police, military and prison officers from Pedi in Nakuru. Zimbabwe and Malawi do not go to South Africa, but come all the way to Pedi in Nakuru for the same. I do not have to list all the others, but I can declare here without fear or favour, and without fear of any contradiction that Kenya does not buy from Pedi in Nakuru. They are also not buying from RIVATEX. I was a principal of Moi University and I was involved in the purchase of the plant for over Kshs200 million. Immediately it was purchased, there was a chain reaction because the people in Salawa Valley in the lowlands who plant cotton and in Nyanza, and the ginneries were awakened because now the value chain was awakened. Because of our inability to remember to assist our firms, we need to know that this, really, is the cause of their death. We continue to assume they do not exist. If we were able to give them a market and say all our police and army officers buy from the firms that I have just mentioned, there will be a quick revival even in the ones that just collapsed. What will it take? It will take a statement as follows; that we need to change this procurement law so that we insert a statement which says “All these types of uniforms must be purchased locally.” There is a song we keep singing here which says” Buy Kenyan, build Kenya.” What does that mean if we cannot truly reflect it in the heart of the national Government such as in the officers we know and to whom we give money every year for ritual payment and purchase of clothes? If we can say “you have to buy this,” just like the way The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}