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{
    "id": 966783,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/966783/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 282,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 407,
        "legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
        "slug": "ledama-olekina"
    },
    "content": "these miscellaneous amendments, they come in either to create jobs, which in most cases end up being given to only one ethnic group and this brings a lot of divisiveness in this country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have gone through this Bills and starting from the first one which is on the Dairy Industries Act, one of the things that shocks me is that the National Assembly would sit down and come up with amendments to punish young dairy farmers in Kenya who probably have not even been enlightened on the need to register their industries. Currently in the Act, one of the things that I thought was punitive is that these amendments on this Dairy Act, Section 33 now want to delete the expression Kshs2,000 and substitute therefore, the expression Kshs1 million or imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both. In fact, this has a lot of typos that need to be taken care of. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is wrong. I do not know whether we have become so broke in this country such that we are looking at every avenue to be able to tax and punish people. You cannot impose so many taxes on Kenyans. There are people who have got one cow. They milk the cow and sell the milk. It is not like the likes of my good friend, the Senator for Kirinyaga who probably has got 1,000 cows. People should be treated differently. We should not support such amendments in this House. We should try and create wealth. The drafters of the Act saw it wise to make these penalties affordable. If we are talking about coming up with penalties to penalize people who adulterate milk, I will support that. If this Miscellaneous Amendments Bill proceeds - that debate we had yesterday notwithstanding in terms of the status of our Bills which we send to the National Assembly - then we would come up with various amendments. It would be important for us to come up with amendments that mandate all big dairy farmers; one that classifies the different levels of dairy farmers. For instance, if a dairy farmer is able to produce 200 or 300 litres of milk, it mandates them to have technology or equipment that can measure the fat and protein content and can detect if there is any water added. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you go to the industry - I am quite versed in that industry because I am in it - you will find that if you take milk from all those vendors, manufactures or the processors of milk and you subject it to a lactic test, you will find the protein and fat content which we are supposed to rhyme together, vary. I am not going to mention the name of the company, but if you look at the fat content you will find that it will be 0.429. The protein content is 0.24. Any scientist or any person who processes milk will tell you that milk has been adulterated. When you look at the water added, you will be able to see that they have added about 0.257 or 0.3 per cent in the milk. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the amendment that we should be seeing coming from the National Assembly to amend the Dairy Act, is not to create authorities or to penalize dairy farmers, but amendments that will ensure that whatever products we give to our people are of high quality. The reason a lot of people are dying of cancer in this country is because the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KBS) has not taken their job seriously. I support young 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."
}