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{
    "id": 522770,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/522770/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 178,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Korir",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1356,
        "legal_name": "Wesley Kipchumba Korir",
        "slug": "wesley-kipchumba-korir"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this Bill. I will also follow your advice of taking as short time as possible. I will not go into much detail about the Bill. I have only two concerns that I want to raise today with regard to the issues that we are facing as a country through procurement. There is a reason why Kenya is not moving forward as we are supposed to. One issue that I am very concerned about since I became a Member of Parliament is the influx of foreign companies working in this country. That is because we have opened up our procurement laws whereby they favour foreign entities over our local companies. There is a reason why the Webuye Pan-Paper Mill is not there anymore. There is a reason why we are not making matches in this country anymore. There is a reason why we are importing goods from China that can be made in this country. We hope to make a law that will protect our Kenyan interests so that we can move forward. I also want to bring into question one more issue that my friend raised; treaties. If we do not watch out, we will be giving treaties that we have entered as a country more preference than our own law that we are making. This law should have power over everything else. The law of this country should have power over any other laws of this world. We are the people of this country and we need to put the interests of Kenyans first. The reason why I am saying that is because of the issue of agriculture. As we are talking about the issue of procurement, we should not be talking only about Government money, procurement funds, Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KERRA) issues or all these issues of development and construction in this country. We should be talking about protecting what is ours first. The issue of maize procurement is very urgent to me and my constituency. Nowadays, because of the treaty we have entered into that encourages free market within East Africa, people are going to import maize from Uganda and Tanzania and yet this country produces the most and the best maize. We are giving advantage to Ugandan and Tanzanian farmers and yet our farmers are suffering because they cannot compete with those people due to the cost of production. The same thing happens with the contracts we give to Chinese companies. A company in this country cannot compete with a Chinese company because the Chinese 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."
}