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{
    "id": 902041,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/902041/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 281,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ndindi Nyoro (",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13370,
        "legal_name": "Samson Ndindi Nyoro",
        "slug": "samson-ndindi-nyoro"
    },
    "content": "There is this issue of the Merchant Shipping Act. Listening to the Chair of Departmental Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing in this Assembly, he convinces us even more not to support the amendments because he was very forthright that the GoK and the public want to amend this Act so that we can give the Government a leeway to acquire ships. This is foolhardy especially given the kind of explanation given by the Chair that it is about stabilising prices and cost of shipping. That was a defeatist argument. We have precedents in this country where we made companies public ostensibly to stabilise prices and they went ahead to do the exact opposite. The reason a company like National Oil was formed was to safeguard consumers for them to be the stabilisers of these prices but that company was swallowed in the same kind of cartel within the old sector. It plays no role because it is not as efficient as the other companies. If you talk about stabilising pricing, we have examples in the banking sector where we have banks which are majority owned by GoK leapfrog other private entities within the same sector in matters of profitability and in pricing of their products. The work of the Government is to offer platforms, it is not to use those platforms to be capitalistic. The Government already has enough on its plate even on the same transportation sector. They should leave the work of using their platforms to the private sector. There is no guarantee that if the Government of Kenya owns ships, prices will stabilise. The Government should stick to offering platforms but more importantly to regulation. In the oil sector, after realising that the National Oil Corporation of Kenya (NOCK) was not helping and still is not helping in stabilising prices, the Government went for regulation through the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC). That is how we came up to where we are where the rights of consumers of all products are safeguarded. I tend to believe that we should force the Government to stick there – regulation and offering platforms. The Government cannot be offering the platform of roads and air and go ahead to offer the means. That is the same problem we have with Kenya Airways. We still want to retain Kenya Airways as a public entity even when it is bleeding cash to the detriment of the Kenyan taxpayers. Therefore, we should never tread on that slippery path of aiding the Government in being in the business of doing business. They should stick to what they do best. We have seen that even by offering platforms, the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) is one of the most profitable companies and entities owned by GoK. We should not siphon the same profits by opening leeway for the Government to use the same platform to make losses. I believe that is what they will be doing if we…"
}