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{
    "id": 1511417,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1511417/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 493,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tigania West, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) John Mutunga Kanyuithia",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Let me just highlight a few more clauses that are important. Clause 25 of the Bill is on building materials. It is important to look for innovative ways of raising revenue. On the other hand, if you want to know that a country is actually growing, you look at the consumption of the building materials, specifically cement. It goes with others like consumption of the steel materials, tiles, and the ceramic fittings. If we introduce taxes in this particular area where Kenyans are skilled and others are not skilled at all, what will happen? This is one of the most inclusive areas. This is where you can find classical examples BETA. We need to be careful about the kind of taxes we introduce in some of these areas. This clause needs to be relooked at. There is also the issue of importation of furniture. Kenyans who can afford to import furniture can pay a little bit more of duty. It is important for us to promote our local manufacturing. In that vein, I agree with the Committee that we need to impose levy on imported materials. There is also an issue of taxing alcoholic products based on the concentration of alcohol. How did we get here? Could we still be talking about the same thing, if there was no COVID- 19? Lifestyle changes occurred during COVID-19. Bars were transferred to the houses. There is mushrooming of liquor stores across the country. People freely, as long as you are 18 years old, buy very concentrated alcoholic products. Again, there are some highly concentrated alcoholic products which are very cheap. They destroy our young children. It is important for them to be made commensurately expensive, so that they are not easily accessible to the young people. When we were young, we did not imagine somebody could drink whisky. These days, they cut across. A very young child consumes very concentrated products. This has not only made people intoxicated and unavailable for productive causes, but it has also brought about lifestyle diseases. The increased cases of gout in this country has led to a great consumption of medical supplies. The relationships make it necessary for us to re-consider the issue of alcohol content. If you go to most of the hospitals and look at the data, you will realise that gout is becoming a major concern in this country. Very young people have gout. In the past, we used to associate gout and arthritis with age. These days, you may not distinguish whether it is arthritis or gout. In most cases, you realise it is gout as a result of consumption of very concentrated alcoholic substances that increase the uric acid levels in the body which bring problems. Hon. Temporary Speaker, last week we were discussing the issue of revenue sharing which came as a result of the mediation process that had discussed and negotiated the amount of money to be disbursed to the counties of about Kh400 billion. However, Kenyans need to be realistic. The national Government and the county governments are one Government, but"
}