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{
    "id": 1373783,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1373783/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 290,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Embakasi West, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mark Mwenje",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1429,
        "legal_name": "George Theuri",
        "slug": "george-theuri"
    },
    "content": " Thank you. I rise to oppose this Bill, and right from the onset, it is important to say that two wrongs do not make a right. The Honorable Member for Kwanza Constituency was saying that we should try to improve on this Bill, and there is no way to improve on something that is already fraudulent. There is an issue of framework that the courts raised. I submit that we still have an insufficient framework in this Bill, and allow me to demonstrate. We have different forms of taxes and levies collected by the Government. We have PAYE, the National Housing Insurance Fund (NHIF), and NSSF. The NHIF directly benefits a person who pays that levy, and the same applies to NSSF; you benefit from it. We also benefit from PAYE and all income taxes. We have teachers in schools, and whenever the Government decides to remit funds to the NG-CDF, we have roads that are done. This is how we benefit directly from this PAYE. So, how will the Housing Levy benefit the person paying it? If you do not change this issue... I am glad the Chairman is still here because we had a side chat with him, and I respect him. I submit to him that this will be another challenge for this Bill, and when we go to court, they will set it aside because you have not shown... You have levied a tax but are not showing how we will benefit. Allow me to speak of Embakasi West in Nairobi. The Leader of the Majority Party has stepped out, but in his answers, I think as Members of Parliament, we should indicate the land where we should construct these houses. I have a school with 4,000 students; with 182 students in one classroom. I am looking for land to build a new school. How will I convince the residents of that ward that I can set aside land to build houses that will be privately owned, and yet in that entire ward, I have only one public school? This is the case all over Nairobi. We have an issue where we have built affordable houses especially in Eastland. I will be honest: we have slums where we have rental houses going for Ksh500, Ksh1,000 and Ksh2,000 in Dandora, and Ksh3,000, Ksh4,000. As you accelerate all the way, you get to Buruburu, where you can afford to pay a house of Ksh50,000 depending on your financial strength. Those are our affordable houses in our constituencies, and we need title deeds. We have built houses, and we need them to be regularized. Therefore, you cannot The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"
}