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{
    "id": 937586,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/937586/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 134,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is a very important matter and a very serious Statement. I commend the distinguished Senator of Bungoma for bringing this Statement to the Senate and hope that the relevant Committee will deal with it expeditiously. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances, and I emphasize; chemical substances, causes more than 200 diseases ranging from diarrhea, which we now and again experience, but cancers. I want to emphasize that the prevalence of cancer in this country as we witness almost every day, may be a direct consequence of this imported maize, which for now we are being told that licenses of some millers have been suspended. Suspending a license is not good enough. I think that the Senator from Bungoma is asking the question; are criminal charges going to be instituted? It is not just about instituting criminal charges. I think through the work of the ad hoc Committee, it was good to see some people being taken to court on account of the Report of ad hoc Committee. Thanks to the Committee of Sen. Wetangula and the Senator of Uasin Gishu, Sen. (Prof.) Kamar. Today, nobody knows what has happened to those cases and probably the outcome of those cases will be acquittals and dismissals. That is why some people are so brave. They said that irrespective of the measures taken by the Government, out of the rice crisis, they will not really care because even prosecutions do not end up in convictions. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you look at the annals of this Parliament, which includes the National Assembly and the Senate because originally there was a Senate, the issue surrounding maize has been there for many Parliaments before either on account of fraud in the maize sector or importation of it. Mr. Speaker, Sir, looking at the figures that are coming from the World Health Organization (WHO) in relation to Kenya of how many people die out of contaminated foods, you would be shocked. I hope that other than the Cabinet Secretary in charge appearing before an ad hoc Committee of the Senate in plenary, this matter should be dealt with, so that it is not a perennial affair. Year in, year out, we talk about maize. When you refer this matter to the Committee, let us pin the Government to taking lasting action in relation to this problem. There should, probably, be a follow up. The first duty of this relevant Committee is to find out what has been done on account of the previous report of the Ad hoc Committee. This time around a little bit more action should be taken. We should express displeasure with the Cabinet Secretary in charge of agriculture and the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Kenya Bureau of Standards (KeBS) because this is where all the fraud happens. When there is an import, they are supposed to inspect it. Some of these imports are inspected at the port of origin and they are given a clean bill of health. However, it turns out that sometimes the import is not even from the port of origin."
}