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{
    "id": 1089236,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1089236/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 136,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Sen. Sakaja. That is the assurance I wanted. I do not know what we will do so that we then input and share our thoughts with our colleagues in the National Assembly. However, I hope one day, we shall convince them to stop this lock, stock and barrel reading of Article 114 of the Constitution on what Money Bill is. In many occasions, I have seen colleague Senators struggle. Every time we want to come up with a Bill, we have to be so careful not to fall within the Money Bill aspect. Remember the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) is always waiting just for you to mention anything that touches on taxes or even money to that extent, and your Bill is considered to have fallen afoul. Anyway, that is a welcome assurance from Sen. Sakaja. It is astounding that up to this point, we have not had a robust conversation. Think about Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). How many of them would wish to properly regularize their books with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA)? The fact that when you meet KRA people, the first thing they do is to hit you with a tax bill of Kshs3 or Kshs4 million. As a young person, you decide to dodge. The minute you run out of favour with them, perhaps you close that company and start a new one. Yet, if in these innovations and incubation hubs being proposed here, would have the tax table where we would link them up and tell them the laws they need to observe, it will serve them better. This is because these young people want to pay taxes, but they are not properly on which tax to pay. These companies cannot afford tax auditors who will point to them which law to observe and guide them in the right direction. We need to seriously give proper consideration to that table. I have seen the Bill also provides for the registration of startups and how to provide admission into the incubation programme. I think it is Sen. Wetangula who spoke earlier and said he hopes this will not be a Government bottleneck. We have Government technocrats in this country who think it is their duty to walk around with a big stick, trying to find who is not following the dictates of the law. They do not have a facilitative approach to things. They find an incubation centre has been set up and they do not wait to be taken through. They do not explain to those people how the law has changed and the things they now need to be observe. Instead, their first point of call is to arrest and charge them in court."
}