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{
    "id": 1082694,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1082694/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 107,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Bondo, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Gideon Ochanda",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1264,
        "legal_name": "Gideon Ochanda Ogolla",
        "slug": "gideon-ochanda-ogolla"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. There are many negative characteristics that bedevil the KRA in terms of the process of revenue collection. I do not want to belabour the point in that direction, but I want to focus more in the direction of the Report on the visits to the border posts. One thing that the House needs to be a little bit clearer on is that we may be talking to ourselves. If the Vice-Chair is listening, a superior report to what you tabled today has twice been brought to this House. It was brought seven or eight years ago. I was a Member of the Select Committee on Regional Integration. It was brought again three years ago by the same Committee. The Report was on how they did the border post inspections. That Report brought out much more. The issues of scanners, lack of water in Malaba and KRA personnel living in the quarters of smugglers were brought out 10 years ago. Where do reports like those that are brought by a Committee that does not necessarily oversee a specific department or authority go to? The Select Committee on Implementation should pick up those things, so that the work of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning might have been made much simpler if they had those two separate reports. If you compare the reports and go to Malaba, they corroborate. There are a lot of similarities. It is important that we point out one thing. All Government agencies benefit in one way or the other from revenues that are generated by the KRA, including the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA. That authority has failed to fix the Malaba Border Post for the last eight years. Not that there is no money. There has been money. If the Vice-Chair would listen, there is money with an organisation called Trademark. They mentioned many times that they have the money. The KeNHA has failed to do this for purposes of fixing the problem of parking for trucks in Malaba. There has been money. The other thing is that there has been money from the European Union (EU) for constructing the Jumuiya Market in Busia. Their Report might not have mentioned that. We had this twice. The EU had money. Busia has failed to identify exactly where the market is supposed to be constructed for purposes of reducing smuggling. The Jumuiya Market was identified for Busia but has never been implemented. That is something that is missing in the Report. While the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning has done very well in terms of actual visits, had they realised or had somebody pointed out to them a little bit earlier that there were already reports from all our entry points, they would have had much more in-depth information about what has been happening. The KRA is one of the Government’s blue-chip agencies in this country. It is not that there is lack of money. I think there are issues of creativity and people being used to the traditional way of doing things. They do not want to get out of their bracket or box. It has been mentioned in this House severally that the cost of production in this country is much higher than that of our neighbours. That means that anybody who wants to buy anything and is closer to a border will go to the other side. It was mentioned here the other week while we were discussing the Budget that in Malaba, everybody goes for commodities from the other side. It is the same in Busia, whether it is fuel or food. They go across the border. It is cheaper on the other side. What do we need to do? It does not need any other serious learning. The KRA needs to be creative and learn some basic things, so that they are able to generate enough revenue. 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."
}