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{
    "id": 134544,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/134544/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 401,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Nyamweya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 391,
        "legal_name": "Manson Oyongo Nyamweya",
        "slug": "manson-nyamweya"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to add on to what has been said, particularly with regard to the film industry. I was, at one time, the Chairman of the Kenya Film Commission and I learnt, in just that short time that in 2006, Nigeria made US$64 billion just from the film industry. Yet Kenya, which is known worldwide for its best filming locations, was nowhere near there. But do you know why they go away? We have a problem with Immigration Department. We have a problem with Customs and we have a problem with everything else. If we were just to go out of our way and have tax exemptions for people in the film industry, they would not have gone to shoot an Obama film in South Africa. They could have done it in Kogelo itself! Now, imagine the number of people who are involved in just making one film. It is two plane loads – the equipment and everything else! If you gave them a tax exemption and waived their visa fees, the amount of money you will make in turn, surely, supercedes the little tax that you expect to collect. I believe that is one way of marketing ourselves in terms of tourism. That is because films are shown worldwide; everybody will see Nairobi and many other areas. Let us not just think about the elephants and so on. That has been done before. I have heard very wonderful contributions here about the natural features that this country has. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other day, I was somewhere in Europe and we paid an equivalent of about Kshs2,000 just to take a bus ride round the town. We were shown the town hall, museum, Parliament Buildings and State House. We paid Kshs2,000 each! It is true that the Minister does not see this. We do not have to go to Treasury always to look for this money. As my colleagues have said, let us think outside the box. The money is there because people are willing to come to Kenya. Most of the time, we spend time degrading ourselves. We talk about how much we hate each other, who is being taken to The Hague and who is doing what. We should concentrate in building this country. We do not help ourselves when we go out there to speak to ambassadors and others that we are terrible or So-and-So has done this-and-that and so, we are corrupt. How do we help ourselves? Other people do not talk about themselves that way outside their countries. Even in the normal family setting - we may have disagreements in our homes - but once we have got visitors, we will show our unity. Really, that is what the Minister should do. He should not just leave it to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. All of us are ambassadors of this country when we go out. We can market this country when we go out."
}