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{
    "id": 901985,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/901985/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 225,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kilifi North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13373,
        "legal_name": "Owen Yaa Baya",
        "slug": "owen-yaa-baya"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker. I would like to contribute to this Bill, and specifically focus on the Merchant Shipping Act. The amendment that is proposed is a dangerous one because it is unconstitutional. It gives out the powers of this House to a Cabinet Secretary. On that basis, it is dangerous for us to continue to entertain the Bill. This amendment is an attempt to privatise an important Government institution through the back door. We have a whole Privatisation Act in this country. We have the Merchant Shipping Act. To give sweeping powers to a Cabinet Secretary to set aside a whole law just because of certain interests is dangerous and should not be acceptable. It flies in the face of the Constitution that the powers to make laws in this country rest in this Parliament. Today, we are giving an opportunity to a CS to be a law-making organ. As we deliberate on this Act, it is very important to protect the mandate of the House and ensure that separation of powers is preserved as enshrined in the Constitution. What is also worrying us is the attempt to take away its mandate, dangerously. The mandate of the KPA to manage the Port is being taken away through these amendments. The danger is that the CS can allow the ports in this country to be managed by other entities apart from the KPA. We know that KPA has been making huge profits. They declared over Kshs9 billion profits. Today, if we give out this berth to another person to run it, we will make more money, but we know the shareholding comes through the Kenya National Shipping Line. People are saying that we will have more jobs and business, but we have seen the attempted take-over of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) in Nairobi by a company that is already making losses. It is the same modus operandi to take away an entity that is profitable and give it to people that we know may not even have the experience to run it. Yes, we would like our young people at the Coast to have jobs. We would like the jobs created, but if we are going to run the new terminals under the current management, we will have more jobs created other than trying to throw away Government entities from running ports and giving them to private entities The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}