{"id":807386,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/807386/?format=json","text_counter":347,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Nominated, JP","speaker_title":"Hon. (Ms.) Shamalla Jennifer","speaker":{"id":78,"legal_name":"Cecily Mutitu Mbarire","slug":"cecily-mbarire"},"content":" Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise today to ask some very serious questions. We must be very clear about what contraband is. It is simply smuggling sugar into this country which is not supposed to be here. There is no difference between industrialised sugar and domestic sugar. None of them should have mercury in them because industrial sugar is used in the pharmaceutical industry. The question we should be asking ourselves is: What is the effect of mercury in sugar? It hinders the body to produce red blood cells and it causes infertility. There is a serious link between organised crime and terrorism. Indeed, it is not lost on us that in the year 2014, it was reported that the terror group, Al Shabaab, had become engaged in the illicit sugar trade. Indeed, I think we have to ask these very pertinent questions because actually, mercury is a type of primer that is used for bullets and motion activated detonators. Is it possible that when this sugar was being smuggled in the high seas, it had something else underneath it and that is how mercury got into the sugar? The war on Kenya is economic sabotage. It is also a war on the people of western Kenya because not only is it economic sabotage, because if, indeed, there is this mercury that is going to cause infertility, then you are fighting even the population demographics of our people. With those few remarks, I urge that this House investigates this matter very seriously."}