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{
    "id": 1164663,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1164663/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 420,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, as I support this Statement, I encourage Sen. Cherargei to look at this matter, not from a political prism, but from an angle where we can get solutions. In fact, to me, the appeal for the National Assembly to put in place some budgetary allocation is fairly myopic. What we need to do, as a House, is to call the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). We know that the CBK has got a role in managing inflation and they do it through monetary policies. We need to understand from the CBK what kind of proactive policies they are putting in place. What happens is that when inflation goes up, central banks across the world tighten their monetary policy. What is the stance of the CBK? Secondly, we need to address our fiscal policy. That is where I have heard a lot of arguments about the Value Added Tax (VAT) and taxation. We need to ask ourselves whether we are overtaxing Kenyans. There has been a debate that many people have not focused on. What is the ideal tax to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio? In this country, tax to GDP ratio is lower than the global average because of tax evasion, a lot of cheating and porous holes in our tax system. Let us address our monetary policy by consulting with the CBK. Let us also look at our fiscal policy, but more importantly, let this Parliament address itself to the sectoral policies that have destroyed agriculture and manufacturing and made the cost of doing business and living too high. As I conclude, when it comes to agriculture, there was Galana-Kulalu Project. It was supposed to ensure food security in this country, so that we do not rely on wheat from Ukraine, maize from Mexico and sugar from Brazil. That was a failure and, perhaps, the people who are complaining today about high food prices were the architects of that failure. We need to be honest with each other. We had a subsidy programme for fertilizer and seed for farmers in the North Rift Valley, but it also collapsed. The National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) also collapsed. Today, NCPB is leasing out its warehouse space and the people who caused that collapse are very loud on rooftops talking about the collapse of the agriculture sector. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to encourage Sen. Cherargei. If this can be converted to a Motion, let it not call upon the National Assembly to tinker with the budget because that is a simplistic approach. Let us look at our monetary, fiscal and sectoral policies. Let us also have sanity in politics such that our politics is not Robin Hood kind of politics, where we steal from the"
}