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"id": 450253,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr.",
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"legal_name": "Mutula Kilonzo Jnr",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I rise to support this Bill and its intended amendments. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, just like Sen. Kajwang, allow me to begin with a story. When this Senate was busy discussing the Division of Revenue Bill, I was in Makueni burying 22 people who died out of a brew that is now famously known as the “countryman.” The effect of this brew was that as we sat in the podium and there were 22 caskets in front of us, there was another tent where the family members of these 22 people were seated. This tent, which was a 300 or 400-seater, demonstrated the effect of losing 22 people in one division to a brew called “countryman.” When I requested to see the bottle, I was amazed to see that this bottle was packaged in the same way as other famous drinks like Famous Grouse and others. It had a label together with a Kenya Bureau of Standards sticker. The multiplier effect of this drink and the effect that it caused in that division will be felt for a long time to come. It begs to say that although Mututho is famous for this Bill, it almost looks like we have had a public relations exercise for the last several days about what was the purposes of this Bill. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I agree with Sen. (Prof.) Anyang’-Nyong’o that there should be a purpose. I think that we should promote consumer protection in an attempt to amend this Bill. Why do I say so? It is because this bottle of water that we are taking in the Senate is by law required to have the contents of what we are consuming. But when it comes to the alcohol that is sold to our people, such standards are not given. This is what I call double standards. We should insist in this Bill that if somebody is going to manufacture alcohol, then that alcohol must have similar contents. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in the case of Makueni, after samples were taken, it was discovered that, in fact, countryman is 100 per cent methanol. We are concentrating so much on the person who is selling this alcohol and forgetting that the alcohol that was sold in Embu, Makueni and other parts of this Republic did not walk to those places. This alcohol was manufactured and distributed by somebody. When we lose two or three Kenyans to the effects of terrorism, we see the whole Government machinery, including the paramilitary coming into place. But when we lose 20 Kenyans who bothered to pay for something that they could consume, you do not see the same sort of force. In fact, in the case of Makueni, the Provincial Administration promised Kshs50,000 to all these victims, but they have never received that money. What would be wrong in prescribing a standard? The other day, we had a fine of Kshs20 million prescribed under the Media Bill, for persons who violate the law. Why can we not have a similar provision, saying that if you are found to have manufactured a drink which caused the death of a person, you will be fined Kshs20 million or so, as opposed to saying that it is a felony or misdemeanor that is punishable by law? That will make sense. Because then that makes sense. I say so because the persons who are manufacturing this are in the business of making profits. If you make a profit when a person has lost his life and family members have lost their loved one, then you are not entitled to do business and in short, in terms of damages, we should ourselves as a legislature not be shy to put punitive damages in this Bill so that as opposed to what Sen. Kajwang is saying, we do not want every Tom, Dick and Harry to manufacture alcohol. There is no problem in having five people provided they do this properly because if the 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."
}