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{
    "id": 1451922,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1451922/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 175,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "everything that was being put on this Bill. I remember, at one point engaging with Kenyans, and a young lady told me that, you guys are so heartless, you are even adding VAT to cancer drugs. That was sold out there and Kenyans believed that there was VAT on cancer medication. Far from the truth, there was no amendment or any proposal in the Finance Bill 2024 dealing with cancer drugs or putting VAT on cancer drugs. What was there was the financing of cancer treatment to be absolutely free for Kenyans. That is lost today. We had sought to zero-rate locally assembled mobile phones. The benefit for zero-rating locally assembled phones, was to create jobs for young people in this country besides encouraging local manufacturing and local assembly of phones in this country. Kenyans are aware that there are coltan deposits that have been discovered in this country. Instead of exporting these minerals to other countries in the manufacture of mobile phones, we would have been using these minerals in Kenya to begin assembling and manufacturing phones in Kenya. There is a local mobile assembler called East Africa Devices Assembly Kenya Limited who has assembled 400,000 phones in a period of only six months since they commenced. They have employed 300 young Kenyans in that assembly line. It is those jobs that we sought to protect by zero rating the local assemblers to encourage others to come up and create more job opportunities for young Kenyans. However, that is now dead. We are now conducting its funeral service in order for us to bury it. Hon. Chairlady, there was VAT exemption to support recyclers in environmental conservation and we are exempting VAT on plant, machinery and equipment used in the construction of plastic recycling plants, and in this era of climate change control and adaptation to ensure that anybody who wants to come and set up a recycling plant of plastics that are destroying our environment. If you look at the Nairobi River today, it is a mass of plastics flowing to the Lower Eastern Region. Hon. Chairlady, this is what we sought to protect Kenyans from to ensure we get Kenyans who can invest in recycling of plastics. This is not just to create jobs for our young people but also to conserve our environment. That is lost. Let me not belabour with all the others because some are painful"
}