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{
    "id": 812797,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/812797/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 52,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I am rising in support of what I have heard from the Senator for Nandi County and the Senator for Narok County say with regard to this Petition. Mr. Speaker, Sir, probably now you will be allowed to enter the Port of Mombasa because you are the Speaker of the Senate. However, if you go there as an ordinary Kenyan, you may not be allowed to enter. I have tried to go through the ports during the time the road through Makupa Causeway had a huge traffic, but it is not easy even if you are a Senator. Even if you hold whatever position in the Government, entering it is extremely difficult. Yet, you find circumstances in which containers of contraband or counterfeit goods going through it. They do not come in single items, but they come in containers. They are able to go through the port and enter the market. The question that should be asked, and has been rightly put by the Senator for Bungoma County, is that whenever you find contraband goods in the market, the starting point is to ask the KRA and to that extend the KEBS. When you go any country, the people who keep economies running are the middle level and small business. In Nairobi City County, for example, if you go through Kenyatta Avenue, River Road and Ngara, it is the small businesses that keep the economy running. In addition, if you go to New York City, it depends on small business. In fact, there was a time when President Bill Clinton was saying that 60 per cent of the business that takes place in there is by small business and traders. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you have the police and state officials running amok, trying to harass and intimidate small business without dealing with the source of that problem, we are causing misery and loss to many people who are otherwise very innocent. I support this Petition. I hope that when it goes to the Committee, it will be dealt with in a comprehensive way so that some understanding comes out on why some of these things are happening. I have been in a situation where somebody imported medical equipment and who had all the papers, but all that was burnt in the name of counterfeit. He had done everything possible under the law, but at the end of it of all, a lifetime investment was ruined. He had taken loans from banks and he had even bought insurance covers in order to import the medical supplies. We will be doing a great service if we can protect small businesses and small traders in this country. They look like they do not matter, but if you look at the City of Nairobi as a whole, from end to end, what keeps the economy going are these small businesses. They 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."
}