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"id": 950024,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/950024/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Zani",
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"speaker": {
"id": 13119,
"legal_name": "Agnes Zani",
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"content": "From the messages that we sometimes get from the traders on the treatment they get, it is as though this informal sector has not been nurtured enough. Therefore, the Street Vendors Protection of Livelihood Bill goes a long way to entrench the protection of livelihoods and make it a right. Part V of this Bill also talks about the specific rights for the people who are vending; the rights and obligations of street vendors to be there, to access essential facilities, reasonable quality of life and being able to operate. This includes ensuring that they have security, lighting and sanitation; those are some of the rights that they have been given. Additionally, this Bill is important because it gives and bestows rights that, most of the time, we take for granted or we just assume. We just see someone who is trading and look at it as if it is just something that happens without legislating properly to ensure that they can do so safely, securely and with confidence. This Bill also gives the license to the vendor, which means that this person has gone through the process of being vetted to have the license. That license cannot be revoked, and they would have to be given a letter to show the cause why it has to be revoked. They are given a chance to actually write back and indicate conditions that they will be defending on why that license should not be revoked. Therefore, Madam Temporary Speaker, this means that these vendors actually end up in a database within the counties at the County Executive Committee (CEC) level. It also means that it is also legislated at the unit which is at the national level. The Bill does not indicate how that unit is going to be; the assumption is that it is in Nairobi, because it gives that responsibility to the Cabinet Secretary (CS). It is important to realize that this Bill just cascades what is already a phenomenon, and takes it right into the counties. It is another one of the very important Bills that deals with devolution, trying to take various responsibilities, through the CECs, to the counties. It is not just through the CEC members, but also through their own county assemblies, come up with legislation that is cascaded to the needs of a particular county. I think that is very key. Therefore, on that issue of rights, this Bill will give a lot of confidence to the vendors. Madam Temporary Speaker, I was somewhere recently, where I saw a programme where the vendors--- First of all, the designated area is key. We know that there are certain countries where certain streets or areas that are even allowed to be vendors’ streets at certain times. This is an ingenious way of trading. I saw very slim stores along a corridor which would open during the day and be locked up in the evening. They will just lock up their wares in a very dignified and safe manner that allows for people to pass across the streets. That means that the vendors do not have to close shops, remove all their wares, go home with them and then come back with them in the morning. As long as some level of security is put there, then the confidence that, “This is my area; this is my spot, I have a padlock to this space,” allows them to run with that sort of confidence. This legislation also aims to regulate informal trading, including areas for conduct of such trade, and we have already talked about that. It also regulates the distribution of The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}