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{
    "id": 808177,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/808177/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 106,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": "committee should work on it, people will be covering their tracks. Those are not small people. Those are people who are able to even influence policy in the Government. I took great exception to what Hon. Atandi was saying; that these committees are dominated by those of us from the Jubilee Party (JP). Yes, we were elected on JP tickets, but we were elected to represent the people of Kenya and oversee the Government of the Republic of Kenya. That we shall do. Whether we were elected on JP, ODM, FORD-Kenya or whichever other party, we shall oversee. It is about the lives of our people that we are speaking about. It is not about our political parties. Therefore, it will be irrelevant which committee of this House handles this matter. Whichever committee handles it, it should be able to table a report here within the shortest time possible. If it were possible, Hon. Speaker, if you had the powers to pronounce today that a special team… I wish the Parliamentary Service Commission had formed the parliamentary police unit, because we would have charged our police unit to go and guard all those godowns. I can bet, and I want Kenyans to listen to me, Kenyans in Webuye, Kenyans in Nakuru, if you see trucks moving sugar, stop them. We must get to the root of this matter. I was just perusing the East African Community (EAC) Customs Management Act as I walked in and a battalion of boda boda riders were demonstrating outside Parliament. Those are very young Kenyans, very poor people working on boda boda and who are suffering. Today, young Kenyan ladies and men, who are in the confectionaries business, cannot access the EAC market because of failure by the National Treasury to make known to the other EAC countries the exemptions that we gave to sugar last year. That was a breach of the law. It is a matter that the Trade Committee must also look into. We must also charge that committee to look at issues to do with quantities. What were the quantities of sugar that was required and what were the quantities that we licensed people to import duty free? There are laws under the EAC customs that govern how you exempt some of those commodities from taxes and you must notify the other EAC countries. That we never did. Is it that it was deliberate so that this sugar is not just in the Kenyan market? It could be that it is also in the other EAC countries markets. I want to beg that we allow the Committee on Trade to handle this matter and bring us a report, as the Chair promised us, within seven days. Today is the first day. We are waiting for another six days. We expect the report to be here so that we can debate and deal with these shenanigans of theft and manipulation of Government policy to enrich a few people in this country. We must speak without fear or favour and speak on behalf of the people. Thank you, Hon. Speaker."
}