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{
    "id": 1171811,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1171811/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1390,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Emurua Dikirr, KANU",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kipyegon Ng’eno",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1453,
        "legal_name": "Johana Ngeno Kipyegon",
        "slug": "johana-ngeno-kipyegon"
    },
    "content": " Instead of KRA, they will change to KRS. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am supporting this Bill with the assurance of the Hon. Leader of the Majority Party that he is not just going to look at the change of name, but he should look at harnessing the functions of the KRA. You know what happens with these departments, the money we are relying on in this country, especially when doing budgets, is from collection of revenue. Many people are paying taxes in this country. People do many efforts to ensure that we have enough money to run the country. However, we are facing two problems here. One of them is the collection of the revenues by the people who are concerned with the collection of revenues. This is where I wanted the Leader of the Majority Party to take note, not necessarily the change of name. For instance, we changed the Kenya Police Force to the Kenya Police Service. However, the police are still performing the duties they were performing before the name was changed. I want the Leader of the Majority Party to look into harnessing the process of collection of revenue. There are many people who are not paying taxes. Many businesses are not being taxed. No one is collecting revenues from them and in the process of collecting the revenues, most of the people working in the particular departments are extremely corrupt such that when they collect revenue, they have two sets of receipts. One is an official receipt which ends up at the office, and of course, they release the money collected. However, there is another set which remains with them after the collection, and that is where we are losing millions of money. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we have in our county an area where county governments rely on collecting revenues to run the county, for example, the Maasai Mara. Before the introduction of electronic system of revenue collection, there were two sets of receipts where people collect money from morning to afternoon, and from afternoon to evening, they use another set of receipts. These other sets of receipts belong to certain individuals who used to enrich themselves until the introduction of electronic system. Even when the electronic system was introduced, we still have the same problem because at some point, we are told that the electronic machines are not working or that there is a collapse of the electronic machines. Therefore, they resort to manual collection. This is exactly what is happening with this Authority. Therefore, I wish to inform the Leader of the Majority Party that we will support him to change the name, but he should bring changes to the way the Authority has been collecting revenue. If we are assured that it is going to be collected electronically, obviously, we will have a way of auditing the collections which have been made and, of course, the Government will not be losing millions of money through the collection. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Leader of the Majority Party should also look at the wastage of the revenue collected. We could collect as much as possible from Kenyans, but how do we spend the money that is collected? That is where we have a problem because corruption in the country is not through direct stealing of funds, but wastage and undue ways of spending the revenues collected. We know people sweat and toil. They do businesses day and night just to put food on the table, and the Government comes and over taxes them. Well, we will not mind being over taxed, but we mind proper expenditure of the money that is collected by the Government. Therefore, I support and tell the Leader of the Majority Party to look at how we can change the process, the means and the methods used in collecting revenue by the Authority. 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."
}