Washington Jakoyo Midiwo

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 2291 to 2300 of 3513.

• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: Article 46 of the Constitution has underpinned consumer rights. Just to refer you, it says:- “Consumers have the right to goods and services of reasonable quality, to the information necessary for them to gain full benefits from goods and services, to the protection of their health, safety and economic interests.” view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, they also have a right, which is what the general trade environment is against, to compensation for loss or injury arising from defects in goods or services.” Then, it goes further to allow Parliament to legislate. We are here to honour that authority given to us by legislation. view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: The issue of consumerism is so important. We cannot have a scenario in this country where we do not care about what our people consume and about how businessmen treat our people. Even the Government itself must be sensitive to consumer issues. This week, what is alive before us is the Value Added Tax Bill, which purports to want to tax basic needs at a time when our people are really suffering and a time when Kenyans have nowhere to turn to. There have been calls by Members of this Parliament that that Bill be shelved, but I am encouraging ... view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: Last October – and the situation extended to early this year - I tried to say that Kenyans were suffering from the attitude and the exploitation of commercial banks. We then put an amendment to try to force the Government to, at least, give people relief. Only this week, an ordinary citizen sent me a message saying that he had a mortgage loan on which last year he was paying Kshs270,000, but now he is paying Kshs385,000. Something must happen. Everybody is complaining. I am shocked that even the people who are campaigning saying that they want to lead this ... view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: Nothing stops this Coalition Government from controlling interest rates from this afternoon - nothing whatsoever - so that Kenyans can get relief. Even if they respect the principles of a free market economy, nothing stops the Government of Kibaki and Raila from controlling interest rates in the National Bank of Kenya, the Kenya Commercial Bank and the Consolidated Bank, where the Government has interest. In the current Finance Bill, I am going to be proposing an amendment to force the Government to do two things, namely, first control interest rates in consultation with Parliament in those banks that are controlled ... view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: We are also going to be moving an amendment to the Finance Bill to make sure that all Government money that is meant for the poor goes to Government controlled banks under the rules that are established by this House. We realize that it is a long journey, but we shall win this war against the banks as it was won in Brazil recently. We understand the issues. They will not hoodwink us. We want the Kenya Commercial Bank, because it has the infrastructure, to hold the funds. The Government cannot say that it is not in the business of ... view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Consumer Protection Bill is a big Bill. We will be doing very many things. Our people live at the mercy of merchants. We live at the mercy of matatu operators. This is the only country where, because it has rained and you are in River Road waiting for a matatu to take you to Kibera, they say that because it has rained, the fare has risen from Kshs20 to Kshs100 and you have nowhere to go to. We are now going to make it law that if a matatu operator does that to you, tomorrow ... view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: The other day I was in South Africa and we went somewhere to eat nyama choma and I had never seen so much of a kilogramme of meat. In Kenya, weighing machines are supposed to be tested by the Weights and Measures Department, which has no capacity. It is an office in South C. It has nobody in Bungoma, Wajir or Kwale. We want to criminalize these things, so that you do it at your own peril. It is extremely important because it allows for fleecing of Kenyans. We now have the Energy Regulatory Commission which is bringing down the ... view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: Hon. Odhiambo-Mabona has appealed to us and this is a Bill which has been moved and passed. The problem then was that I moved it, the Government purported to want to take it over and then they went and shelved it because big companies approached the Minister for Trade then and said that they did not want to be regulated even though they were hurting our people so much. Now that the environment has changed and the Constitution has allowed us to bring this Bill, I am going to follow the advice of hon. Odhiambo-Mabona that we talk less and ... view
• 1 Aug 2012 in National Assembly: Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. Let me, first of all, thank my colleagues who have contributed to this Bill. The issues here are numerous. I wish hon. Shakeel could let hon. Balala listen. Let me begin by thanking you and inviting Members of Parliament to know that this cannot be an individual’s Bill. All I have tried to do is to create debate. I think it is an opportunity for all of us to bring in all other areas by way of amendment as we go to the Third Reading so that we can make it much more ... view