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{
    "id": 639755,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/639755/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 314,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Elachi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13115,
        "legal_name": "Beatrice Elachi",
        "slug": "beatrice-elachi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. When I started contributing to debate on this Bill, I raised key fundamental issues and I wish to continue. Indeed, I know the Homa Bay Senator clarified some issues but when you go beyond reading the Bill, we will have created two new funds. One of the funds will be for the management of the fisheries and the other one will be for the new authority of food. It is important for the Government to also help us understand this whole process. When you say you are reducing authorities and yet within new Bills, we are creating new authorities, then it is something we need to question because it brings in the issue of cost. The other issue we need to ask ourselves is how the Government wants to manage trade in imports and exports, and also the marketing of fish within this Bill. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when you look at most of the people who trade in imports, you find that most of the storage is not in Kisumu. The storage is in Thika. So, you find that the locals who are the fishermen will always fish and sell it. The people who benefit in this sector are mostly brokers. I know the Government has ensured that locals benefit. There should be market access for the materials that one may want to trade in, be it fish or any other product that you may want to sell. There should be a market to sell that product. When we look at what they are proposing, for example, in Article 54 (2) of the Bill, which says:- “No person shall import any live fish into Kenya without the written approval of the Director-General in accordance with such procedures as may be prescribed and the approval shall only be given upon production of---“ The moment you put the words; “the approval shall’, it means people can also import fresh fish into this country while we have fresh fish that we need to export. So, that is something we need to discourage if we want to build the fisheries sector. There are some things we must decide as a country to safeguard. One of the things is to ensure that before we import any fish--- Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, people are now doing different businesses, from importing eggs, ginger etcetera. This is something we need to discourage because 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"
}