Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1252720,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1252720/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 128,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ainamoi, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Benjamin Langat",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "a company is highly indebted, you have two options. Close the company, or bring in more capital from the shareholders. The shareholders are Kenyans. This House is the board of management, and the President is the Chief Executive Officer. We must make a decision on whether to close the company or bring in more capital injection. If we ask the shareholders of the company, they will say no. We are not closing the company. We need to bring in more capital. If I liken this country to an individual, I would say that person is sick. You must seek medical advice. Sometimes, the doctor prescribes medicine. Medicine is not always sweet. It may not be palatable. Sometimes, the doctor might even prefer that surgery be done. Surgery is not nice, but we must do it because that is the only thing that still needs to be done. Why am I saying that? This country is facing very serious problems of public debts and cost of living, and we need to create employment. If we continue doing things as we used to, the results will be the same. We will continue borrowing, and not having employment for our youths. This Bill is good because it proposes radical changes to help us resolve our problems. The question is: Is the process nice? It might not be nice, but we need to take those decisions so that tomorrow is better. I want to thank the Members of the Committee. We sat and listened to the members of the public through the public participation process. I was the Chairman of this Committee in the 11th Parliament, and I can confirm that there has never been more interest in the Finance Bill than what I am seeing on this one. We received almost 200 representations from members of the public and professional organisations, and we listened to them. The question is: Does the Bill have issues? Yes, there are small issues. However, I am happy to report to the House that more than 60 per cent of the concerns of Kenyans have been addressed in the Report. Therefore, Members should now read the Bill together with the Report that was tabled yesterday. All the matters that were in contention were addressed, and recommendations were made to the House to ensure we alleviated the fears from the public. One of the issues is levying Excise Duty on goods that are manufactured in the country and imported goods. The stand of the Committee is that we must support local manufacturing and give a competitive advantage to our manufacturing sector. If we are to industrialise and create jobs for the youth, we must incentivise the manufacturing sector. That is why some of the Committee proposals seek to delete proposals to levy Excise Duty on locally manufactured raw materials or goods, so that we can encourage local manufacturing. The other proposal in this Bill is on Export Levy. Our exports are always less than imports. We do not export much. The levy is to make sure that we increase our exports. I come from a tea-growing region, which is the primary export product in Kenya. When we talk to the farmers, they tell us that we export to only three countries in Africa and four countries in Europe. That is a very dangerous situation. We need to increase export markets for our coffee, tea, avocados and service industries. Although we seek to raise money through this Bill, we want to refrain from taxing local manufacturers. I am happy that, as a Committee, we listened to members of the public. It will be a serious issue to pretend that we want the status quo to remain and yet, at the same time, we want changes. I have listened to our friends from the other side. It will be wrong to say that we maintain the status quo and yet, we want changes. We must do something to bring the changes. We must be willing to take the necessary painful decisions now so that tomorrow is better than today. I second the Bill and the amendments that will be brought at the right stage. I encourage all Members to rise to the occasion and be bold. We need to reduce our public debt and increase our revenues to become a self-reliant country. If we continue with the status quo, we can only increase the public debt and continue piling up pending bills. Yesterday, we passed the Estimates, and all Members were happy. Of course, Members on the other side were not there. I heard the Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) say that we have allocated Ksh613 billion to education. I also heard him say that we have 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."
}