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{
    "id": 600383,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/600383/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 115,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Tuya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 926,
        "legal_name": "Roselinda Soipan Tuya",
        "slug": "roselinda-soipan-tuya"
    },
    "content": "I wish to highlight a few very salient provisions of this Bill, one of them being the express protection of cultural heritage, which is very pertinent. Heritage here is again divided into various parts, namely movable, immovable and intangible. We have seen tangible cultural heritage like shrines and secret sites, which are very sentimental and dear to some of our communities. They are even the subject of land grabbing. The Bill then comes to provide a much needed protection for these sites in respect and recognition of our cultural traditional heritages. The protection of traditional knowledge and cultural expressions from derogatory treatment is also provided for under the Bill and this is really commendable. I wish to highlight the provisions of Clause 10, which provides for rights conferred to holders of traditional knowledge. I will not go back to what the definition of “community” is, but there is a provision for express and exclusive right of a community to authorise the exploitation of their traditional knowledge or prevent any person from exploiting their traditional knowledge as well as their cultural expression. While I support the Bill, we need to think very critically because some of the things we are seeking to protect in this Bill are things that we may rightfully say, have been overtaken by events. We have cultural expression items for the various communities in this country. For example, the Kikoi for the coastal communities has been patented somewhere in Japan. The Maasai necklace is a key cultural expression for the Maasai Community. How do we salvage that which has already been overtaken by events in terms of even patenting outside this country? Under Clause 37, the Bill provides for sanctions and remedies where atrocities are committed under this Bill. I will be one of the people who will look critically at this in light of our intellectual property law in relation to patent and licensing to see how we can salvage those cultural expressions which have already been taken away. It has been said that our communities are rich in traditional knowledge and we are not devoid of examples. There are some traditional medicines that have been seen to work, although some of them have backfired like the great exodus to Loliondo in the Republic of Tanzania or the Babu concoction. I am not sure whether it worked, but some communities in this country have very rich knowledge in the area of medicine, some of which has been taken out of the country for further exploration and even for production of some medicines without any benefit going back to these communities. This makes this Bill very important for us. Even as I think about salvaging our traditional knowledge and cultural expressions from exploitation by outsiders, internally in this country, we are underrating and not maximizing the use of our museums and archives. Some of our museums are being used for purposes which have nothing to do with the protection of our rich heritage and cultural expressions. It is incumbent upon the Cabinet Secretary in charge of our museums to implement this. We may even start internally by making sure that our museums are being used for the right purpose of promoting the objects of this Bill. Lastly, it is laudable that Clause 15 of this Bill removes legal hurdles in seeking to protect traditional cultural expressions. It provides that recording and recognition shall not be subject to much formality. This will ease the issue of recording and recognition for purposes of promotion and protection of our cultural expressions and traditional knowledge. I also wish to say that we must be cautious when protecting our cultural heritage because in defining “intangible cultural heritage,” the Bill includes cultural practices. This might be a subject of abuse where we have some practices and cultures in our communities which are not in tandem with the Constitution and which may be seen to be repugnant to justice. Female Genital 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."
}