Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1260977,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1260977/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 883,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mathare, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Antony Oluoch",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Chair. I beg to move: THAT, Clause 76 of the Bill be deleted. I rise to propose an amendment that Clause 76 of the Bill be dropped entirely. The reasons for this is that the entire question of housing has been a moving goalpost by this particular Government. It started off as a tax, mutated into a levy and, at some point, changed into saving. If you look at it in terms of the hierarchy of needs of what the people of Kenya, what the hustlers of this nation and what the people in my constituency consider to be the most important needs, number one would be the question of education. It would also impact materially or be on the same platform as the cost of living. This Government ought to put its resources and time in bringing down the cost of living as opposed to taxing people who are already overtaxed with 16 per cent on fuel and many other things, rather than to reduce the tax on helicopter parts and other things. My proposal, Hon. Temporary Chairman, is to have this amendment completely deleted from the clause. Let the Government allow the county governments, whose role it is under Schedule 4 of the Constitution, to carry out affordable housing. If the Government must collect a tax, it can do so by having a 1 per cent or 2 per cent increase on VAT as they have done, a 1 per cent increase on Pay as You Earn (PAYE) as they have done, and then give the county government a conditional grant to do the housing within the counties. This particular tax is punitive, excessive, unnecessary, and out of touch with the taxpayer and the hustler on whose backs this Government rode. I ask that we agree to drop Clause 76 in its entirety. Thank you."
}