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{
    "id": 1116860,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1116860/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 232,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. Indeed, this is a very critical moment in the history of this Parliament. This is one of those occasions when the National Assembly is being called upon to rise to the occasion when there is a problem affecting the lives of Kenyans. We would not be where we are today if the prices of petroleum products were not increased by the regulatory authority that has been tasked with the responsibility of continuously coming up with prices. However, I want to thank the Member who first brought this Petition to the House, Hon. Mule. I want to also thank the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning, which has held several meetings. Most of their meetings were held in public and Kenyans were able to see some of the reasons being advanced for the drastic increase in prices of petroleum products. The Committee has done its job and has already brought a Report to the House for debate. I am happy that this House has allowed debates on the Report of the Committee on a Petition, which is really not the tradition. I know we are going to discuss the various proposed legislations that are meant to reduce various taxes which, of course, will help in addressing this problem. I, however, have a few comments to make. We need to ask ourselves fundamental questions as a country on why the oil sector and petroleum market cannot be competitive. Why does it have to be regulated? In any market where regulation is allowed, there is always bound to be distortions. Even if we take the measures that we are taking today, at the end of the day, if there is no discipline in this sector, and we do not remove corruption in this sector, we will come here another afternoon or another morning to debate on how to help cushion Kenyans. A number of suggestions have been made, and there are areas where I fundamentally agree with the Committee. One of them is that probably, the Petroleum Development Levy is too high for us as a country to impose on petroleum products to be used to stabilize prices in cases where there are issues, distortions or there is international increase in prices. The question we need to ask is whether the international increase in prices is still going to be a factor. 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."
}