OCTOBER 2010 HANSARD REPORT QUESTIONS Date: 6 th October 2010 Member of Parliament: Hon. Martha Karua Contribution she made on: Campaign by ICT board on Female Digital Content Developers She said that the grant is large enough for equity to be applied so that one third of the grantees are women. She asked whether the Assistant Minister for Information and Communications would consider reformatting so that a certain number is given to each constituency and also a certain quota is reserved for women. Date: 6 th October 2010 Member of Parliament: Hon. Peris Chepchumba Contribution she made on: Report on recycling from E-Waste to Resources She asked the Minister for Environment and Mineral Resources to explain:- a) To what extent the Government is prepared to curb the potential harmful effect of electronic waste in the country. b) Whether he was aware that the move by the Government to impose a 25 per cent excise duty on imported refurbished computers and zero rate new computers 2 years ago had not helped the situation. c) What measures he was taking to reverse the situation. d) Whether he could table the recent report by the United Nations on “Recycling from E- waste to Resources ” and explain how the report will be implemented. e) What effective incentives the manufacturers give consumers with regard to the re-use or recycling of these products. f) Whether the Government had documented the annual domestic e-waste in the country particularly in urban areas like Eldoret, Nakuru, Kisumu, Nairobi and Mombasa. Date: 6 th October 2010 Member of Parliament: Hon. Prof. Margaret Kamar Contribution she made on: Report on recycling from E-Waste to Resources She said that Kenya is party to the Brussels Convention- an international convention on the control of the trans-boundary movement of hazardous wastes and their disposal. She said that E-waste is an emerging environmental concern considered as hazardous due to harmful effects of the contents of electrical and electronic equipment. She said that dumping is mainly as a result of donations that are given continuously to institutions in the country since the dawn of the era of computers. She said that there is only one NGO in Kenya called Computers for Schools Programme that takes in all computers to refurbish them for use in schools. She said that the obsolete components are re-exported back particularly to Belgium, Norway, Netherlands and China, where they recover some of the metals for their own use. She added that Kenya lacks requisite technology to do the same. She said she was aware that the duty charged on imported refurbished computers had not helped the situation and that it was because, the kind of electronic equipment received were donations which were valued very low. She said that the draft E-Waste guidelines, proposed that there should be a setback scheme which would enable the public to return all electrical and electronic equipment for collection by producers, manufacturers, distributors and even the service providers. She added that the collection centers would be established by the same institutions because that will be their own garbage. She said that the same manufacturers and producers would be encouraged to have the option of setting up treatment facilities to refurbish and recycle whatever had been rendered useless or reship them to countries that have the technology. She said that the development process of the guidelines had involved both the Kenya Revenue Authority and the Kenya Bureau of Standard among others for purposes of excise duty. She said that it was expected that the situation would greatly improve when other countries in the region adopt the same environmental standards to cut infiltration specifically the East African Community, She tabled a write-up which was a report by the UN on the recycling of E-Waste. She said that the Report indicated that some countries had been identified for application of UNEP technology Transfer Network. She said that in Africa, the only country that was been identified was South Africa. She said that Kenya had been classified among a Group A set of countries, which include Uganda, Senegal and Peru, which are the promising countries for the introduction of preprocessing technology. She said Class B consisted of countries with innovation hubs and centres of excellence for recycling. She said Kenya was one among four, where there would be introduction of preprocessing technology. She explained that Kenya was in that class because of the smaller volumes of e-waste for the formation of formal or informal recycling activities as revealed by the study that was done in 2008. She said that establishment of collection centres would ensure that sufficient volumes that are required before moving to Group B. She said the guidelines would assist in the creation of awareness to the Kenyan people as they would be informed that “dead” cell phones or computers should be collected and sent to a particular place. She said it was not yet time for consumers to receive incentives. She said incentives would come during the collection most likely in the first stage. She added that centres belonging to manufacturers would be set up and that the only incentive they will give will be as a result of them returning the goods. She said the incentive will not be given upon the sale of the new items. She said that the present guidelines will be affected as soon as they are discussed at parliament. She added that as soon as the guidelines are in place, then the collection centres will be set up. She advised Kenyans not to destroy the gadgets on their own because they contain hazardous elements or toxic materials. She said that the collection centres of these gadgets would be set up as soon as possible. She said that the implementation of the regulations would be done publicly and that Kenyans will be informed of where to take their old electronic gadgets. She said that designated centers would be created for old T.Vs, radios, telephones and other electronic gadgets. She said that some of these gadgets contain lead and mercury and are therefore a great health risk to the population. He added that even as documentation was being done under a project pioneered by the UNEP, it was not possible to classify Kenya among the Category B where recycling can be done. She said the setting up of the centres is going on and it is only the schools computerization programme that has a centre. Date: 6 th October 2010 Member of Parliament: Hon. Charity Ngilu Contribution she made on: List of Dams done by Tanathi /NWCPC in Kitui She said that the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, through the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation (NWCPC) and Tanathi Water Services Board, had constructed six dams and eleven sub-surface dams in Kitui West Constituency. She said that the dams’ total capacity is about 47 cubic metres of water/ 47 million litres of water. She said that within the current financial year, the Ministry of Water and Irrigation had allocated a total of Kshs6, 999,467 for construction of new earth dams and sub-surface dams and desilting of existing ones in Kitui West Constituency. Date: 6 th October 2010 Member of Parliament: Hon. Charity Ngilu Contribution she made on:Unattended Handbag in the chamber She asked whether it was in order for a member to raise that point of order when he knew that the bag belonged to honorable Chepchumba who was just sitting next to him. She said that that was a way of belittling the activities of the House. She said that some honorable Members did not want the women M.Ps to carry their handbags to the chamber and thus the need to protect them. She said that all members in the house are each other’s keepers and added that she was sure that the gentleman seated next to the handbag knew the owner and should have protected it. Date: 6 th October 2010 Member of Parliament: Hon. Millie Odhiambo Contribution she made on: Status of current parliament She asked whether the current parliament is the Tenth Parliament, Fourth Session or whether it is the First Session of the Second Republic or the Eleventh Parliament. She sought to get direction regarding The counter Trafficking in person’s bill. Date: 7th October 2010 Member of Parliament: Hon. Millie Odhiambo Contribution she made on: Report on abuse of office by former postmaster-general She asked the Assistant Minister to clarify whether he knew more law than the Attorney- General or whether it was a case of ethnic profiling. She said that the letter from the Attorney General clearly spelt out that the post master general was not guilty of abuse of office. DATE: 7th October 2010 Member of Parliament: Hon. Rachel Shebesh Contribution she made on: Report on abuse of office by former postmaster-general She asked the speaker to protect others in the house from the Assistant Minister’s careless answers. She reiterated that Hon. Mabona had tabled documents that clearly revealed that Mr. Odhiambo was cleared of having committed any criminal offence by the Attorney- General’s office. She asked whether the Assistant Minister was in order to talk about other charges when the Attorney-General has said there were no criminal charges. DATE: 7 th October 2010 Member of Parliament: Hon. Charity Ngilu Contribution she made on: List of dams in Kitui done by Tanathi/NWCPC She said that the Ministry of Water and Irrigation through the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation and Tanathi Water Services Board had constructed six dams and 11 subsurface dams in Kitui West Constituency .