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{
    "id": 1485421,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1485421/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 285,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kibra, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Peter Orero",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for allowing me to contribute to this very important Motion brought by our colleague, Hon. Kawajiku. It has reached a time that people should respect the functions of this Parliament. We have a number of issues that pass or are commissioned without the involvement of the National Assembly. Exemptions of duty and taxes are a menace to this country. Yesterday, we were debating on the sharing of revenue in this country to the county governments. We agreed that we were not collecting enough taxes and revenues in this country, and we could not approve the disbursement of funds to the counties. At the same time, the Government that we are supporting not to disburse funds to the county is the same Government that is allowing the exemption of billions of shillings in this country to a single company. Kenya is a capitalistic nation where fair competition should be allowed, especially in the field of business. Imagine that all the steel, the Y12, Y8, and Y10, are manufactured by a single company, which is why the prices of some of these commodities are very high. It has reached a time that, as Parliament, we must take serious action on some of these favoured companies' omissions and commissions. We must not allow that we lose billions, yet as of last year, the Government was only able to collect, maybe in terms of revenue collection, about Ksh2.9 trillion, and they missed the target. Therefore, what we budgeted for as a country and which passed through this Parliament could not be met. Meanwhile, we lose billions to companies owned by individuals who do not serve Kenyans per se. Some of the laws we have made, for instance, the Privatisation Act; some of the companies being privatised are done through the National Treasury and are not passing through this Parliament. I am happy that the courts have stopped some of these transactions and ordered this to be done through Parliament. Parliament must look at some of the acts which allow us to control the management of some of these things. We must also have a threshold where the exemptions can be done with the Ministry. 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."
}