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{
    "id": 439864,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/439864/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 249,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 3036,
        "legal_name": "Timothy Wanyonyi Wetangula",
        "slug": "timothy-wanyonyi-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I wish to support this amendment. We realize that what is going on in this country is driven by greed and uncontrolled use of alcohol and substance abuse among our young people. If the Government can regulate the use of the otherwise traditional alcoholic drinks like busaa and muratina, this is something that can be done. These drinks are much healthier than what people are drinking today. When I say “driven by greed” I refer to the unscrupulous businessmen and women who use dangerous chemicals to adulterate the drinks that they sell to the people. That is why we end up with many dangerous drinks which kill and main the people. If we empower NACADA and also use the proposed tax that will come out of this regulation, we can set up rehabilitation centers to rehabilitate people. Otherwise, the youths have been lost to alcohol. If you look at it critically, there is a generation that has been lost to alcohol abuse. If you go to some slum areas especially areas that fall in my constituency, you will find that these people drink from morning to evening. They do nothing. They wake up on a drink and just end up being hopeless. They do not work. They do not do anything. That is also an area that we need to look into and empower NACADA to regulate. There is some jurisdiction where we know that the tax that comes from alcohol is labeled as sin tax. This sin tax is used to rehabilitate and protect the victims of alcohol abuse. So, if we can come up with a tax regime that can regulate this, then we can rehabilitate some of our youths who are lost to alcohol. Rehabilitation centers in this country are very expensive. Most of them are run by NGOs. Most of the times, the people who abuse alcohol have no access to these facilities. So, if the Government can come up with proper facilities that can rehabilitate the victims of alcohol and other substance abuse, it will be better for the country. Also, we have institutions like the Kenya Bureau of Standards which are mandated to deal with standards and I do not know how some of the drinks that people take have authorized stamps of KEBS. I do not know how they manage to get it. But if that goes through their laboratories and still end up in that kind of situation, then we must re-look into how to deal with this situation. I support this Bill because it will go a long way to regulate and control some of these abuses we are seeing in our society and loss of lives. I beg to support."
}