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{
    "id": 1019605,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1019605/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 319,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Igembe Central, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kubai Iringo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1574,
        "legal_name": "Cyprian Kubai Iringo",
        "slug": "cyprian-kubai-iringo"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. As I was saying, the Committee gave it more gist and for the benefit of Members, we are just adopting this one in the Public Finance Management Bill so that this multiagency team which has already been suggested in the Bill should sit very fast and formulate the laws and proper acts so that it can be put in place. I can see that the process of coming up with this Amendment Bill started way back in 2019 and we are now talking about it in late 2020. I pray that it should be acted upon very fast so that we can bring sanity in our counties. The beauty of it is that it will bring uniformity. Currently, each county adopts its own formula and once you adopt your own formula of doing things, sometimes they clash. For example, sometimes when goods are being transported from one county to another, they are charged at a certain value in a given county and if you go to another county, they will be charged at a different value. In the absence of these laws, sometimes the governors or revenue collectors come up with rules and change things overnight. The other day, when the COVID-19 pandemic started, a lorry of miraa in Mombasa was being charged only Kshs4,500, but somebody somewhere sat down and decided to raise the figure to Kshs45,000 and it happened that way. However, if there were tax laws, these things could not be there. Lack of transparency is another thing which will be cured by this law. We will enact this one, but it needs good oversight from the county assemblies. They need to make sure that laws are followed. These monies should not go to people’s pockets as it was being said. Many are blaming the governors, but I will say that even the revenue collector himself or herself, the one who is charging parking fees, the one who is charging the rates and the like, pockets the money. Cartels have developed in our counties whereby people even have their breakdown vehicles. They bribe the attendants to lock people’s cars so that their breakdown vehicles can be used to tow cars and that person gets some money out of it. All these cartels will be cautioned. On demanding bribes like my colleagues have said, if parking fees is Kshs50, but you have Kshs30, you will give it and be left with Kshs20. You will not get any receipt and your vehicle will be safe because that attendant will take care of it until you come back. We will enact these laws, but the mechanism of implementation is the onus and a way should be found out. After it is enacted, I believe the people who are supposed to make sure it is actualised should do it prudently. With that, I support."
}