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{
    "id": 1498348,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1498348/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 508,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tigania West, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) John Mutunga Kanyuithia",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The other issue is this: It is important for us to realise that county governments are in competition to raise revenue. Already, we have the order of things in terms of the performance of different counties and we actually laud some of the great performers in revenue collection. But revenue collection must be very well thought through in order not to mess up with the status quo of a country. This country is not measured by the status of the counties or the performance of the counties, but it is measured by the performance of the country, as it were. Article 209 of the Constitution basically restricts taxation and other revenue-raising measures to adherence to the policies of the country. If the policies are not properly followed, then we will be making a big mistake. We also know for a fact that counties are recognised as further units of devolution and countries have the liberty to interpret further their own regulations and their own conduct of business at the county level. So, in this particular case, this Bill comes at the right time to try and provide some guidelines on how to structure out revenues. Counties collect levies, rates, fees and taxes. In collecting all those revenues, they need to have innovative ways of doing it without increasing the cost of doing business in Kenya. There is no business that is done in Kenya without being done in a county. In other words, we are saying that any businessman who will ever target this country to do business or any investor from this country - and we are busy promoting Kenya for foreign direct investment - will land in a county. If the cost of doing business in a given county is high, then it will reduce the possibilities for investors to come and do business in Kenya. We do not want to have punitive costs as a result of the competition to raise revenue at the county level. There are various products from different parts of this country. Products produced in northern parts of Kenya like in the North Rift or in West Pokot, will cross very many counties before they reach Mombasa. There was a time when those products were being charged fees or cess when they crossed county boundaries. That is extremely punitive. When the products land in Mombasa, they will be very costly. This Bill seeks to moderate some of those excesses. It seeks to reduce the levies and taxes that are charged along the way. It seeks to manage that particular process in the country so that we have a unified way of guiding counties on revenue collection or making money. Kenya is doing very well in terms being an investment destination because our cost of doing business has been going down. Kenya is one of the preferred destinations for investment and we need to make it even better. The only way to make it better is to moderate the excesses in terms of the cost of doing business. In order to legitimise revenue sourcing for counties, we need this particular Bill. In order to create predictability, which is important for any foreign direct investor or any Kenyan who may want to invest in a specific county, we must be able to show what kind of taxes, fees and levies are expected in a given county. Therefore, this Bill seeks to moderate that development. Counties are at different levels of development and the demands for money are different. County governments will, therefore, be justified to imagine ways of raising money. In their imagination, we do not want to leave county governments to think through and come up with proposals. We would like them to be guided as it were. In order to enhance the principle of fair taxation and in order to have a guided country, we need to moderate roles of county governments in revenue collection. That is why this Bill is important. It is becoming very difficult for Kenya as a country, and for the national Government in particular, to educate Kenyans on revenue collection. There are about six or seven ways of how a government can get revenue. One of them is to get money from philanthropists. Counties can access that kind of money. The other way is doing business, like selling goods and services. We get revenue from the sales in form of taxation. The other way is the strengthening or weakening of the value of the shilling. It impacts on the amount of money we can get. The key way is taxation. Taxation has been a difficult thing to explain to Kenyans. Every Kenyan today, old or young, speaks about taxation. They speak about the load of taxes without even realising"
}