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{
    "id": 1254387,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1254387/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 140,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kisumu County, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ruth Odinga",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker. I want to oppose the Finance Bill. I will start by saying that there is no Kenyan who does not want to pay taxes. We are not here to say we oppose this Bill because we do not want to pay taxes. Every Kenyan pays taxes and has been doing so. They are probably only complaining about what their taxes do and how they benefit them. They are not even satisfied with the taxes they have been paying and are now being made to pay more. That should be stated clearly. It is important that Kenyans are not misled by our Kenya Kwanza brothers, who allege that we are saying that people should not pay taxes. That is not the case. I want to start with the Fuel Levy. One of the reasons that the Fuel Levy was reduced from 16 per cent to 8 per cent was because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, when the country was going through a terrible time, and there was a slump in our economy. We are now claiming that the economy is now back to normal. I do not think so. I do not know why the Kenya Kwanza Government has decided that the Fuel Levy will go up to 16 per cent from 8 per cent and yet, the economy is worse, people are suffering and most businesses are still closed since the COVID-19 Pandemic started. What has happened to inform the increase of the Fuel Levy from 8 per cent to 16 per cent? That was a very drastic change. We all know that the Fuel Levy will affect the whole economy. Since Kenya is an agricultural economy, with fuel taxes going up, we will be paying more for farm machinery and transportation of goods, which will affect our economy. On top of that, we are saying there should be VAT on export goods. If we do that, we will be killing the export industry and yet, we expect Kenya to be a net exporter of goods. How do we then start putting VAT on those exports? I would also like to talk about why Kenyan women started the mama mboga movement. Women started doing table banking because they were not confident enough to go to banks to get money because they were charging high-interest rates and taxes. This led to table banking which has been helping the mama mboga . Charging taxes on table banking will be immoral and criminal. That will cause this country to flop. Thirdly, I come from Kisumu County. Because of historical injustices, Kisumu and the whole of western Kenya have never had the industries that other parts of the country enjoy. Most of our economy is supported by the jua kali sector. When you say that you will introduce a turnover tax on earnings of Ksh500,000 instead of the usual Ksh1 million, you are actually… I know my time is up. Lastly, Hon. Osoro, you said that in Kenya, the majority have their way while the minority have their say. The majority in Kenya are Kenyans out there. The Kenyans in Kisii and everywhere else are the majority. If this Finance Bill passes, mtaona . Kenya will be on fire. The fire will come from the majority on whom we are imposing those taxes."
}