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{
    "id": 441169,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/441169/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 202,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is one thing that again shows the reverse thinking of the sponsor of the Bill because the national laboratories under the Constitution remain the preserve of the national Government. If there is a killer brew in Murang’a, Mai Maihiu, Nyeri, Homa Bay or wherever, we should not pass a law that allows substandard laboratories to be established in the counties to purport to test alcohol or any offending substances. If we want standardization in the country, that must be done at the centre and any alcohol that renders Kenyans blind or kills them must come to the national laboratories. To allow different levels of testing is, in fact, to exasperate the problem because what will happen is that where the counties are not able to set up a laboratory, they will hire a quack next door who runs a third rate laboratory and whose verdict on any alcohol or substance will depend on who pays him. This will even be making the problem bigger. If we are going to have 47 laboratories around the country, each laboratory will be passing the test in accordance to who visited who and so on. Let us just have the national laboratory because Nairobi is not too far from everywhere. There is air transport and if there is a substance that is offensive, bring it to Nairobi and test it. If we have the culprits, jail them after due process. If it is a drink that we have to ban, let us ban it but let us not go that route. I am sure they can now appreciate that we have read through this. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to end so that I can give time to others to contribute by saying the following: If there was any Act to be amended, it was the NACADA Act. The NACADA Act is what gives the Mututho team or whoever will be there--- Mr. Kaguthi was also there and the other day, they expelled a man from western Kenya in order to leave Mututho with all the authority. If this was to be done, then that was the Bill to look at. If the philosophy of the Senate Majority Leader in bringing this Bill was born and predicated on the recent events of reckless consumption of alcohol and the casualties that are coming out of it, it is noble. But this is what we call doing the right job wrongly because he should have looked at the other laws that are available in regulation of alcohol. Some of the things being purported to be done, if you look at the NACADA law, they are already provided there. Like I said, and I want to end on this note, this country does not suffer from a shortage of relevant laws. This country suffers from the lack of will to enforce the law. That is our biggest problem. 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."
}