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"id": 203649,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/203649/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Mwenje",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Co-operative Development and Marketing",
"speaker": {
"id": 257,
"legal_name": "David S. Kamau Mwenje",
"slug": "david-mwenje"
},
"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I also want to thank the Minister for bringing this particular Bill. This is because I have always had problems that will be addressed by this Bill. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have a lot of cases of double licensing, where you will find somebody, for example, paying to the Government, the Nairobi City and some other authorities. The Nairobi City Council collects Kshs25 per day from all the women and men who sell their wares within the City. In one week, they each pay over Kshs200 and about Kshs800 per month. That is a very unfair way of licensing. I would want the Minister to take this matter up with the Minister for Local Government and withdraw that particular charge which is being imposed on those who sell their wares, particularly within Nairobi City. Because of those daily charges, we have some Nairobi City Council askaris who also have their own receipt books. They keep on asking for money from those women and men who sell their wares. I would like the Minister for 4004 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES September 18, 2007 Finance to intervene immediately and stop the askaris from collecting this levy. If they have to pay, let them pay an affordable monthly fee instead of paying Kshs25 per day. What would happen if one did not sell anything on a particular day and he or she is arrested and fined Kshs2,000 for not paying the licence fees? We are really messing up the people who are doing that business. Particularly now that we are going for the general election, I want to ask the Minister to stop the practice immediately in Nairobi so that our people can pay what they can afford on monthly basis. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, double licensing still continues. There are cases where people pay money to both the central Government and local authorities. We must decide which licence should suffice because the local authorities are also under the central Government. When we ask people to pay twice, we are not being fair to them. I think we have got to make a decision. The Minister for Finance and the Minister for Local Government have got to agree as to which licence would be paid for. We should not apply double licensing and still ask our people to continue paying for it. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the same issue applies to motor vehicles. Sometimes one does not even know which licence he or she is paying for. The Minister removed the road licence, but we continue paying for so many other licences. For example, if you import a car, you are required to pay for a three-month licence for using a foreign vehicle. When it expires, you are supposed to renew it for another three months and so on. I have seen people going back to the Namanga border to get a stamp to show that the vehicle has come into the country again. So, they are charged again for bringing the vehicle into the country. In addition, they pay for another licence. It is so cumbersome. I think it is important to be clear on what licence one is supposed to pay for and for what vehicle, because there is still a lot of confusion in licensing. Although this issue is not covered in this Bill, I think in future, we must clarify what licences are required. It is also still not clear what licences one needs to pay for in the case of second-hand vehicles. It is clear in the case of new vehicles. Because of this confusion in the issuance of licences, I think the police officers also take advantage of this vacuum. This encourages corruption in the force. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is, therefore, important that the Minister for Finance makes it very clearly what licences an individual is supposed to pay to get certain services. Even in provision of commodities like new and second-hand clothes, the law on licensing is not clear. At the airport, we normally see customs officers asking us to pay a certain amount of money for our luggage. They decide how much to be paid. The law is not clear. Travellers with luggage containing clothes are not sure of what they are supposed to be paying. I want to appeal to the Minister for Finance, now that he has proposed this amendment to come out clearly on what licences we are supposed to pay. At the moment, we have left it to the customs officers to decide what licences we should pay rather than this House which has powers to do so. I hope the Minister has heard me clearly. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}