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{
    "id": 1120651,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1120651/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 100,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "You turn progressively a House of Parliament into a voting machine. In fact, it now becomes an extension of the Executive. People sit in the Treasury. They do not interact with ordinary people. They do not know if ordinary people are hurting. They simply believe, tax the Kenyan as much as you can to solve your problems. Madam Deputy Speaker, I do not believe the explanation being given out and I listened to the proceedings in the National Assembly. Unfortunately, many Members in the National Assembly were behaving like apologists of the Treasury. I heard one Member saying that this extremely high, punitive and oppressive taxation is because of our debts. Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. and I sit in the Committee of Finance which is chaired by the Senator for Mandera. The CS for Finance appeared before us and said that he is raising the debt ceiling so that he can opt to take concessional borrowing and retire expensive debts. To date, there is not a single expensive debt that has been retired and the borrowing has hit the ceiling. In fact, I would not be surprised if a new Motion is brought to this House to expand the debt ceiling. When that is done, we must ask the CS, Finance, which expensive debts did you retire? To date, as we grapple with this, China is owed Kshs1 trillion by Kenya. It is even a threat to our national security because if China decides to turn on Kenya and take us to the Paris Club, and do all manner of things that creditors do to borrowers, we will be in a very sorry state. When I see everybody today, it means we are all committed. I hope we have not come here to defend sectarian interests. We must speak as a House. There is no sectarian interests to defend here. Eighty percent of Kenyans rely on kerosene for lighting and cooking. A hundred percent of our economy relies on fuel. I cannot remember any time in the recent past when fuel prices went up to the extent that we saw recently. Kerosene went up by Kshs12. As this is happening here, the price of crude oil worldwide is coming down. There is a lady in one of the TV stations called Okwara. I saw her analyzing the price increases on TV and she said that the culprit is taxation. Who taxes Kenyans? It is not the Executive. It is Parliament. We cannot blame President Uhuru for levying taxes on Kenyans. He brings proposals; it is Parliament that taxes Kenyans. The Parliament that is taxing Kenyans is the same one standing up to apologize for taxing Kenyans. I even see some of them standing in funerals and decrying about the high cost of fuel when they know they are the ones who have imposed on every litre of fuel that we are paying taxes up to Kshs72. That is why landlocked countries that have got nothing, a country like Swaziland, a little island in the middle of South Africa, their fuel costs are cheaper than Kenya; with all the bounty we have. Fuel moves from Mombasa for 2,000 kilometres to Butembo in Congo and it is cheaper there than here. To add insult to injury, we summoned the CS responsible to come and explain to the House but the CS did not show up; he gave no explanation; he does not care. That is what we are facing. Today, I would want to urge the chairperson of the Committee on Energy that he does not even need a resolution of this House. He lives in Kenya. The KPLC, a monopoly"
}