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{
    "id": 1003237,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1003237/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 321,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I can hear Hon. CJ, T.J. Kajwang’ shouting, “former!” It is true, indeed. I am a Member of Parliament for Kikuyu and Chair emeritus of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. I am honoured, and I must thank my party and the people of Kikuyu for the opportunity to serve the country. Let me add a few comments on the Finance Bill proposals. Last week, I mentioned that, increasingly, and being a constitutional democracy, the House has been abrogating its responsibilities and mandate given to it by the Constitution of our Republic. There are a lot of powers that were given to us as the peoples’ representatives by the people of Kenya through the enactment of the 2010 Constitution. Particularly, I want to draw the attention of the House to Article 210 of the Constitution. We are elected as leaders to come and represent people in this House. I keep on emphasizing that point of us being the peoples’ representatives. It is only in the State of Washington DC where there is taxation without representation. However, in Kenya, there must be representation with taxation. That is why elected Members of Parliament are sent to this House by their constituents so that even as they are taxed, they are represented. I am glad we are all here this evening to make sure we represent our people. Article 210(1) of the Constitution on the imposition of tax was quite explicit: that no tax or licensing fee may be imposed, waived or varied except as provided for by legislation. That responsibility on imposition of taxation demanded is in this House. It is only this House that can legislate on matters to do with taxation. That is why Article 114 of the Constitution and even Standing Order No.114 are quite clear on questions about Money Bills that affect taxation and general matters to do with taxation. I say that with concern because we are increasingly seeing the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury taking over the work of this House through the delegated legislation model of bringing legislation into this House. It is an issue that I raised when we did the Tax (Amendment) Laws. I think Hon. Kimunya is one of the Members who spoke in support of what we were saying; that we varied VAT regulations through delegated legislation. I said that, that simple act of using delegated legislation to change the rate of VAT from 16 per cent to 14 per cent might be counter-productive to our economy. I indicated that our estimates, by the Budget Office, were that we could lose, at least, Kshs49.7 billion in three months. That, extrapolated to a whole financial year, is about Kshs200 billion and yet, we are talking about a country that is ravaged by floods, Covid-19 pandemic, our revenues falling and the economy really hurting. I agree with what the Leader of the Majority Party was saying: That for every action, there must be a reaction. Therefore, for every revenue that we lose, we must be able to know as he was asking: How do we raise that money? We have already gone through the budget process. We have appropriated money. In the next few months, I foresee a situation where we may have to do a The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}