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"id": 203604,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/203604/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Musila",
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"speaker": {
"id": 94,
"legal_name": "David Musila",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I stand here to support this Motion. I hope that I will not be repetitive. I would like to talk about three things. First, I would like to talk about the issue of pensions. As you are aware, in the year 2003, this House passed the Pensions (Amendment) Act, 2003. I want to fault the Minister for Finance for failing to implement this Act, which this House passed. The House amended Clause 16(a) to read as follows:- \"A person to whom a pension or other allowance is payable under this Act shall be entitled to be retained in service until the payment in full of the gratuity payable to 3994 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES September 18, 2007 him consequent upon the exercise by him of his option to receive such gratuity under the provisions of this Act.\" That means that those officers who retire, today, continue to stay for years before they are paid their pension. This House, clearly, passed a law that the Government retains officers who have not been paid their pension until the pensions are paid in full. Clause 19(a) was also amended to read as follows:- \"A dependant's pension payable under the foregoing pensions shall be paid to the dependant within 90 days, failure to which interest would accrue thereon at bank rates until payment is made in full.\" That is a law that was passed by this House, but the Minister for Finance has failed or neglected to implement this Act. It is upon him to tell this House why he has neglected to implement the law. Today, retired public officers are the most miserable because they go home without their pensions. We have heard hon. Members asking Questions here about people who have taken years before they are paid their pension, yet this Act is not being implemented. The reason why I talked about this is because the Minister attempts to amend the Pensions Act using this Bill by giving minimum pension payable as Kshs2,000 per month. This is welcome. Nevertheless, I think Clause 34(e) does not go far enough to take care of public officers who retire. I hope that the Minister will listen to me because at the Committee Stage, I will move an amendment to this clause. The Minister said that, subject to the provisions of this Act, pensions shall be increased with effect from 1st July, 2005, and every two years, thereafter. The Minister is proposing that pensions will be increased every two years. You know, as well as I do, that in other countries pensions are adjusted whenever salaries are being adjusted. It is only in this country where public officers retire and continue to earn little pension while their colleagues, with whom they were working together, get salary increments and, therefore, when they retire, their pensions are much higher, although they were doing the same work. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will be moving an amendment to this issue when we come to the Committee Stage to require the Government to increase the pension of all pensioners whenever they are increasing salaries for serving workers. I say this because a large number of people you see here, retired many years ago, as senior officers, Permanent Secretaries, Provincial Commissioners and even as school principals, and yet they earn as little as Kshs4,000 or Kshs5,000 per month. I want to declare that having served as a Provincial Commissioner for 30 years, I earn a pension of Kshs6,000 per month. If I was not earning extra funds, how would I be living today? I know that many of my colleagues here, including hon. Nyachae and hon. Mwiraria with whom we retired together, are earning Kshs5,000, yet they were Permanent Secretaries. The Permanent Secretaries who retire today earn up to Kshs50,000 per month as pension. Why is that yet they were working together? This is because the pensions were not adjusted as the salaries were being adjusted. Therefore, in order to safeguard the interests of public officers of this country, we must ensure that we adjust pensions along with salaries of sitting or serving members of the Public Service. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue I want to raise concerns the tariff that has been raised by the Minister in relation to plastic bags. When the Minister was reading his Budget Speech here, he gave us a very convincing reason that, because of the environmental concerns, he was going to increase the duty payable on plastic bags. However, the Minister has sneaked something else regarding the tariff on page 1885. Instead of concentrating on polythene bags that are used in the supermarkets, which are polluting this country so much and for which I support him for increasing the duty, he has included sacks and bags. That means that the gunny September 18, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3995 bags that the sugar farmer uses, the bag that the maize farmer uses and the one that the sukumawiki mama uses to carry sukumawiki is being given duty of 120 per cent, going along with plastic bags, which we know are very harmful to the environment. I am very old and I have never seen a used gunny bag lying on the streets. The Minister wants us to believe that the plastic bags which are actually sacks and are manufactured from plastic and are used and over used until they run and become rugs--- I do not know where they rot because I have never seen any. The Minister has imposed this levy on gunny bags. It is the small farmer who will suffer because the price of commodities will rise as a result of the 120 per cent tariff on these gunny bags. So, I want to ask the Minister to voluntarily remove the 120 per cent duty he has imposed on gunny bag which is used by the ordinary mwananchi. Finally, I want to talk about something which is not in this Bill. That is tax on wheat. Currently, tax payable for wheat is at 35 per cent. As you all know, the world market of wheat has gone up tremendously. Currently it is going at US$450 per tonne. It used to be US$150. What that means is that the price of bread has recently risen from Kshs23 to Kshs30 per loaf. The indications are that the price of wheat in the world market is going to rise. Very soon, bread will be going for Kshs35 per loaf. That will not be due to additional tax but because of the world market price which is rising. We know that bread is eaten by the common man. Bread is food for the poor. Every morning, the poor people go to the kiosks and get their loaves of bread. That is also their lunch and even supper. If we cannot make bread affordable to the ordinary Kenyans, then we cannot claim to be serving the poor people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am, therefore, appealing to the Minister for Finance to consider--- Like it is happening all over the world and I am sure you have heard that in other countries, riots take place because of the rising prices of bread. It is now worldwide. Globally, the price of wheat is going up. Therefore, this Minister could do this country great service if he voluntarily lowered the duty paid on wheat from 35 per cent to 10 per cent so that the price of bread can go down and be available to the poor people. If that does not happen, I am afraid the poor people will continue to suffer. I appeal to the Minister to, voluntarily reduce the duty paid on wheat so that the price of bread can go down. It is now going to Kshs35 up from Kshs23 and wananchi cannot afford it any more. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}