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{
    "id": 1441328,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1441328/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 74,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung'wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I plead with Kenyans to be patient and allow us to do what they charged us to do as their elected representatives. Many Members have suffered a lot of harassment. This morning, I was asking the Leader of the Minority Party whether he has suffered and he told me he switched off his phone. Many Members cannot be reached on their phones, including WhatsApp, because they have switched them off. This is the beauty of democracy whereby Kenyans express themselves and we respond to what they are saying. That is why many of the proposed amendments in the Committees Report touch on the issues to do with bread, boda boda and sanitary towels. This morning, I heard somebody asking whether we have the capacity to manufacture adequate sanitary towels and diapers in this country. I want to confirm that we have more than adequate capacity. If you get data from the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), we are surpassing the daily demand of sanitary towels. As I mentioned, I am a father of girls. Two of them are in their teenage years, one is 17 years old and the other is 14 years old. Someone was showing me a very derogatory message sent to him, asking whether his wife does not use… Looking at the data from KAM, it is clear that, out of four established companies that manufacture sanitary pads, we have Inter-consumer Products Limited, Pro-Med Limited, African Cloth Limited, Sai Pharmaceuticals Limited and a fifth upcoming one, Sunda Kenya Industrial Company. Their production output is 148 million pieces a month while our local demand is 135 million pieces a month. When the eco levy was introduced on sanitary pads and diapers, Kenyans spoke to the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning and said the products would become expensive. The Committee has responded by imposing both the VAT and eco levy on finished imported products, including imported sanitary pads and diapers. Those products come from other countries and we cannot ascertain their safety, hygiene and if they meet the required health standards. It is important for us to be responsible citizens and protect our teenage girls, mothers, sisters and wives by ensuring that the sanitary pads they use are safe, secure and hygienic. It is also fair to protect our growing manufacturing industry. When KAM presented their memoranda to the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning, they truly pleaded with them to protect our local manufacturing industry. We are imposing excise duty, eco levy and VAT on imported finished products in order to protect our manufacturing industry and ensure that jobs are created for thousands of our youth. Today, they are being misled that the only thing Hon. Members can do is to reject the Finance Bill 2024, instead of fixing it. This Bill had 65 clauses at its inception. I have listened to Kenyans and engaged a number of them…"
}