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{
    "id": 1186791,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1186791/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 138,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Tax collection in this country is what is putting us into serious problems. People are paying a lot of taxes in this country and those taxes can actually finance Government budget. However, there is a lot of leakages in our taxes such that they do not end up getting to the Government. Today, you want to take away Kshs300 billion from the hotel industry when actually tax collectors invest almost the same amount of money in real estate and it does not reach the Government. We have a lot of buildings in Nairobi City that have been built by KRA officials. They collect the money but do not allow it to get to the Government and this is quite known. I want to encourage the Government to first of all stop leakages in KRA who do not remit the taxes to the Government. Secondly, the Government is trying to address the issue of value for money, which is caused by serious leakages by procurement officers. Procurement officers in this country have made it impossible for Government to get value for money. We go to Government offices and realize that procurement is always inflated to suit people who work in Government. My plea to the Government is not to target the wrong areas. I do not think there is a problem with Government officials holding meetings in conducive areas. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we did our training in Mombasa during recess. It was in a very nice hotel and we were very relaxed. Had we held that training here in this Chamber for those five days, I do not think it would have been quite as effective as it was. That is the atmosphere that we need to create whereby the leakages and porosity that we are seeing in procurement and collection of revenue in this country can be corrected rather than targeting small and medium-sized enterprises such as hotels. I hope that Sen. Cherarkey will have the courage to convey these kinds of ideas to the Government. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I thank you."
}