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{
    "id": 600387,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/600387/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 119,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Mulu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1955,
        "legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
        "slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
    },
    "content": "two there and by the time they came back from those areas, it would start to rain. I do not know what god they used to worship at that time but I think they were very committed to their worship. We also lost this because of change in our lifestyles and traditions. The other area is marriage. How we conducted our marriages was very clear. There was a lot of research before you married a lady. One needed to find out a lot about the lady’s family. It was important to know how the family behaved. If for instance, it was found out that the family was one of witches then one would not marry from such a family. Overtime, families remained very intact and we had minimal divorce cases due to these traditions. We are also losing this with time. I know we are all going for what we call the civilised way of living but it also has its own challenges. The other thing was traditional foods. Our community had its own traditional foods. Some of us who were brought up eating that food have remained very strong. We are not visiting hospitals all the time because we have the natural immunity as a result of eating that food. We all need to support this Bill. It is going to provide us with the opportunity to adopt those traditions which used to make us remain united. As the previous speaker has said, we must make sure that whatever we pass is not against the Constitution 2010 because that will be wrong. I have interest in three Clauses in this Bill. Clause 8(1) says:- “Every county government shall establish and maintain a register which shall contain information relating to traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions collected and documented by the county government during the registration process.” Clause 8 (3) reads:- “The national Government shall establish and maintain a comprehensive Traditional Knowledge Digital Repository which shall contain information relating to traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions that have been documented and registered by county governments.” This is very important to me because once we have this register, it will be possible for people to know the areas documented in terms of our traditions and cultural expressions. I also revisit Clause 10, which has just been mentioned. It is very important. It says that every community will have exclusive right to their traditions and cultural practices. It further states that, that right is only going to be exploited after getting authority from the same community to capitalise on that right. This is very important. For example, if the Kamba community is able to identify its traditional knowledge and cultural expressions and then document that, it means that no other community will be able to access such knowledge without getting authority from such a community. That way, the community can benefit from that kind of registration. Clause 12(1) states:- “Where protected traditional knowledge is not being sufficiently exploited by the owner or the right holder – that is the community we have just spoken about – or where the owner or rights holder in traditional knowledge refuses to grant licenses for exploitation the Cabinet Secretary may, with prior informed consent of the owners, grant a compulsory licence for exploitation subject to Article 40(3)(b) of the Constitution.” Some communities may be selfish and say: “Since this is our knowledge and cultural practice, we are not going to allow any other community to use it.” So, this law allows that in 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."
}