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"id": 493849,
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"speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
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"id": 24,
"legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
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"content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I wish to second this Motion as moved by my good friend, hon. Omar Mwinyi, the Member for Changamwe. As I second it, in my view, this is one of the best Motions that I have had a chance to debate in this Parliament. I will be encouraging all the Members not just to support it, but to have the Government put in place measures to fully liberalise the air fares, including awarding licences to other operators. Sometimes I wonder if Kenya Airways can any more be called the national carrier. My understanding of a national carrier is that we, as the people of Kenya, should have certain inherent benefits on account of flying Kenya Airways. To the contrary, as I will demonstrate in seconding this Motion, Kenya Airways in more ways than one, remains nothing but a yoke on the necks of the flying Kenyan public. I even wonder if Kenya Airways can be called a Kenyan airline any more. I am speaking from experience. There was a time that I was in Kampala, Uganda, and I went to change my ticket as hon. Omar Mwinyi has said, of course, with the attendant penalties and I had with me Kenya Shillings. The people at Kenya Airways refused to accept the Kenya Shillings insisting on the US Dollar. Honestly, Kenya Airways being a Kenyan airline refusing to take Kenya Shillings, it is shocking. As has been eloquently stated by my good friend, hon. Omar Mwinyi, Kenya Airways jealously guards its dominant position. The trouble, like I have said before, with having a dominant position is that more often than not, the dominant player will set the rules with the same ease that it breaks the same rules. It is very depressing that those of us who regularly fly Kenya Airways, you cannot even predict the kind of fares that you pay. The fares that you pay, maybe for going to Mombasa one week, if you go two days later, you will find they have changed. How then do you budget to manage your life? The Kenya Airways fares as I speak, tend to be whimsical and only seem to focus on their profit target. This is punitive. In the last Parliament, I was privileged to be a Member of the Liaison Committee on account of chairing the House Broadcasting Committee. We had a very interesting scenario where as Parliament, we were thinking of ways to bring the cost of travel down. In one instance we witnessed something. We were shocked to learn that some of the airlines charge as little as one quarter of what Kenya Airways charges with regard to a journey, say, to Brazil, using other airlines with much more superior passenger service and much more comfortable cabin space. It is almost like a norm that people in public service including ourselves must fly Kenya Airways. Effectively, therefore, instead of being the national airline that we all should be proud of, Kenya Airways has become a yoke on the necks of Kenyans especially those public institutions which insist that they fly Kenya Airways on international flights. In more ways than one, those regular fliers of Kenya Airways literally pay with their arms and legs. I think that it is because of the forced captive market that Kenya Airways today has some of the most unfriendly cabin crew members I have ever had a chance to meet. This is a personal opinion and it is based on experience. I have witnessed instances where cabin crew members in supposedly elevated classes like the Business Class simply bark The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}