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{
    "id": 1337781,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1337781/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 275,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Karachuonyo, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Adipo Okuome",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. The issue we are speaking about is very important. I heard my Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning comment on taxation which comes up without going through the Committee. This is a very serious issue. I also repeat that there should be no taxation without representation – which can only happen in this House and nowhere else. The Members who belong to that Committee meet people along the way a number of times and they ask them how they are punishing them to a certain extent. Our taxation is very high. Again, we are just increasing it suddenly. That is not the kind of increase that passes through Parliament. I feel that this House should declare such increases of taxation illegal and never allow implementation of the same. Recently, we saw some regulations published by the Ministry of Education. Some of these cases come and affect our education system tremendously. Some of them are very heavy that a number of students drop out because they cannot afford to pay the increased fees. If a Kenyan child leaves school because of that kind of increase of school fees, and if they are many, we are not only affecting that child, but also the future of our beloved nation. We should not just sit back and watch these things. In a situation like that, we should say that the increase is illegal because it did not go through the system. We have a scenario where the prices of petroleum products have been increasing constantly every month. I do not know whether we have given the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA), a standing authority, that they can increase VAT and whatever at their own will so that by the end of this year, for example, we will have our economy completely run down because of the increase in the cost of fuel. Such cases should be watched by us carefully so that we do not destroy our country under the pretext that we are collecting revenue. I tend to believe that such increases have a negative decline in total revenue collection. The graph of revenue collected slips down because the increase destroys the income and when the income is down, automatically, the tax collected will also be down. I emphasise that we should take care of what is going on in our nation, especially with regard to increase of taxes or anything that will affect the nation without us authorising that increase in this House. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I hope this case will be taken care of."
}