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{
    "id": 1085163,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1085163/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 162,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Eng.) Maina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 75,
        "legal_name": "Ephraim Mwangi Maina",
        "slug": "ephraim-maina"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. I rise to add to the voices of the majority here regarding COVID-19 and its effects to this country and the way we have behaved towards it. There is no doubt that COVID-19 is real and it has really affected our people. I have not seen what we expected to be implemented being done in actual fact. Today taxation has gone to the highest level. I remember my Committee raising the issue about gas. When you see the prices that people are being charged now for Meko gas you will really sympathize because the people who are very low class rely on that gas to cook food. Madam Temporary Speaker, the cost of fuel keeps rising. In this particular time when people’s salaries have been reduced to half and the cost of service has gone up, these are the kind of measures that I would expect to be put in place. Bigger democracies like America have put in place measures to try and support their people and their economy during this particular time. That is the kind of thing we should emulate. Secondly, I must stand here and condemn the so-called KEMSA billionaires. We were given PPEs by this man from China. From the explanation that we were given, nobody could tell where they were or what happened. This is a very sad thing. You would have expected that we would have put our minds together in trying to procure as many vaccines as possible. However, to date we have only vaccinated about 1 million people. That leaves out a lot of medical staff, frontline workers and many other citizens. I want to call upon our country that let us put everything else aside, let us leave doing any gigantic projects and procure vaccines so that we can vaccinate a large population of our people. Finally, I really sympathize with the low cadre. County governments are doing nothing. If anything, they are increasing tax after tax. Today we were told that a businessman with a pickup vehicle will try to buy potatoes from Nyandarua to take them to Kisumu. He will be charged a fee in every county that he will pass through. These are the kind of things I would have thought that we as a Government should be able to do something about. County governments must come in and prioritize the issue of fighting COVID-19. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}