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{
    "id": 1440698,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1440698/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 196,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Molo, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kuria Kimani",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker. I watched the debate yesterday and today. I celebrate the democracy that our forefathers fought for. Kenyans across the political divide can sit down for hours on end and discuss issues of this country. As it has been said, the conversation in our country is no longer about our communities but about how to grow our economy and country. When we differ, we differ on how, but not on what we need to do as a country in order to become a growing economy. Sadly, this debate has been skewed differently because of the fallacies and lies that have been told. I have seen some Members and members of the public say that the Bill introduces taxation on cancer patients. I have gone through the Bill word by word, clause by clause, but nothing mentions cancer patients. This falsehood to emotionalise our members of the public is immoral, wrong, and very distasteful. We have seen a lot of contestations, especially by our young people, that we have introduced taxation on digital content creation. This is far from the truth. In fact, the Bill proposes to exclude content creation that does not lead to money generation. The rejection of this Bill will make our content creators worse off than they are in the current provisions of the law. The current provisions of the Finance Act talk about content creation, even when it is not monetised. The Bill proposes to delete content creation that is not monetised. That is a fact of the matter. For our content creators, rejection of this Bill means that you will be worse off than you were last year or at the moment. I have watched the debate on sanitary towels and diapers. I grew up during napkin times when children used napkins. I have seen how diapers have revolutionised and modernised our women. A few years ago, the quality of a good mother and wife was known by how well she washed the napkins for her children. They used to soak them at night with Jik and hot water and tire their hands to wash them until they were white. When neighbours passed, they would watch how white they were. The quality of that wife and mother was based on how white those napkins were. Therefore, where we are in diapers, we have greatly revolutionised and given dignity to our wives and mothers. This Bill proposes to give them more dignity by making them use diapers and sanitary towels that are affordable and of good quality. We can also ascertain their safety. That is why we are saying that we should use our locally manufactured products. Hon. Speaker, how much do we hate ourselves as Kenyans that we demonise our capacity to manufacture here locally? How much do we hate our young people that we would rather export these jobs to India and China but not have them here in Kenya? The Government allocates resources to ensure free sanitary towels for our school-going children. How much do we hate ourselves that we want this money to go to India and China, but not to our local manufacturers here in Kenya? These arguments came last year. This House made two difficult decisions. One of them was imposing import duty and excise duty on imported furniture. As we speak, this tax and policy measure has seen the furniture used in this country being locally manufactured and creating jobs for young people. If you go to the big furniture shops like Tile and Carpet Centre and others, they have all started local assembly and manufacture of furniture. Therefore, the furniture we are using, courtesy of the Finance Act of 2023, is locally made here. Last year, we zero-rated the local 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."
}