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{
    "id": 1336982,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1336982/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 194,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Alego Usonga, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Samuel Atandi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to give my contributions on this very important Bill. I begin by congratulating the Chairman and the Committee. They have done a wonderful job in coming up with this Bill. As everyone has mentioned, this Bill is important because it is going to help in regulating the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector. I believe the sector is one that can help this country to grow its economy because it has not been utilised properly. In Kenya, we have about 30 companies that are manufacturing drugs. If you compare these numbers with our neighbours, Tanzania has about 11 and Uganda has about 20… That means if we really harness this sector, we can be the country that is exporting drugs to the region. Unfortunately, this is not the case. As you are aware, we largely rely on imported medicine. This is the reason we are saying that if you visit local chemists, you will find that they are only stocking imported drugs. Some of these imported drugs are of low quality. I hope with the licensing mandate given to this Authority, they are going to do a better job in ensuring that the drugs that come to this country are high quality. Coming back to the point that I raised about maximising on this sector to help us grow our economy, we have done very little as Parliament to help this sector grow. For example, in the recent Finance Act 2023, we did very little because we loaded too many taxes on this sector. As a House, we have done an injustice with all the taxes that we loaded on this sector which could help us create job opportunities for our youths and in generating foreign exchange. Right now, we have issues with foreign exchange because we lack foreign in-flows. As we pass this Bill, we must remember that a high tax regime is bad for any sector, including the pharmaceutical sector. I want to tell the Government that it is not enough to just come here and bring us Bills to pass. We will pass Bills, but they will have no effect in jumpstarting our economy if we do not link some of these legislations with the other aspects of governance such as taxation. Right now, the cost of electricity has gone very high and there is no manufacturing sector that can prosper if we cannot contain the cost of power. We cannot prosper if we continue to tax employers, and these companies. Today, we are increasing the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF); tomorrow we are increasing the National Social Security Fund (NSSF); and the housing levy and so on. These nonsense taxes are going to kill these sectors. It will be a waste of time for us to sit here and pass good laws which will not be implemented. The other issue is to do with corruption. I also believe that this country does not lack laws. We have enough laws, but how come they do not help us? It is because we allow corruption to thrive. Corruption thrives in this sector. I think the health sector is the most corrupt after the police. We need to ensure the new law we are passing works and serves us. So, we must be vigilant and ensure we do not allow corruption to thrive since this Government has allowed corruption in all ranks. Every day, it displays corruption. We see the Deputy President carrying sacks of money going to church to give donations. He is displaying corruption and wants this country to prosper; it cannot. Therefore, we must tie these things up to work together for the good of our country."
}