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"id": 216536,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Murungi",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Energy",
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"legal_name": "Kiraitu Murungi",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir. I rise to second this Motion. This year's Budget has been hailed as a very reasonable Budget by Kenyans from all walks of life. The tax proposals which have been proposed by the Minister relating to Excise Duties, Value Added Tax (VAT), Income Tax and other Miscellaneous Fees and Taxes, which are the subject matter of this Motion, are part of that Budget and they are equally reasonable. Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, I would like to urge my colleagues from both sides of the House to support these proposals. The key issue which has dogged this country since Independence - if one reads the speeches of Tom Mboya, this comes out very clearly - the question of economic independence. The issue of taxation lies at the hearts of both political and economic independence. The American independence was built on tax revolt at the Boston Tea Party. So, we should take these proposals very seriously. The Government of President Mwai Kibaki has been at the forefront of economic independence. I am happy to say that even when he was the Minister for Finance in the 1960s and 1970s, that is when the economy of this country was blossoming. Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, currently, we are funding our Recurrent Expenditure from our own tax resources to the tune of 93 per cent. It is only 7 per cent which is funded from external sources. This, by all standards, is a commendable achievement and it should not go unnoticed. We should not say that we are not resource rich because we do not have oil or gas. Experience elsewhere shows that even countries like Spain, which are basically agricultural and service sector-based economies, can be independent and they are during very well. There is no reason why we, as a country, cannot also stand on our own feet and start our development efforts from our tax resources. Kenyans should learn to pay taxes if they want to control their own destiny and if they want to fund their own development. Time has come for us to stand up because 40 years, or so, of reliance on the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other multilateral agency-driven development programmes, have shown that this will never remove Africa from poverty. Africa has to learn to use its own resources to develop itself. Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, the Minister talked about our economy now growing at the rate of 6 per cent from almost negative growth rate only about five years ago. This Government has undertaken major development projects all over this country in a short span of less than five years. Roads are being rehabilitated everywhere in this country. Agriculture, the sugar sub-sector, dairy farming, maize and coffee farming, and livestock keeping have been revived. You can see signs of growth in all the sub sectors of agriculture in this country. With regard to social development, our universal Free Primary Education Programme (FPEP) is hailed all over the world. Recently, Prof. Saitoti was being commended by UNESCO in Mali, only last week, because of our universal FPEP. We are now moving towards reducing the cost of secondary school education. Health facilities have been improved and there is a target on converting the youth from hopelessness to workers, employers or income earners in this country. 2136 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 28, 2007 Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, the Kshs2 billion for women has now stirred the private sector. You have seen the Equity Bank coming up to merge with the Kshs5 billion fund for the Women Enterprise Development Fund in this country. I think our greatest development evolution as a country has been that innovation that we call the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). In every village that we go to in this country, we are celebrated because of the CDF. There is a school coming up, there is a foot bridge, a bridge, a health facility and so on. Our people are properly utilising this money. We have, after many years of politics of confrontation, empty rhetoric and tensions, finally, settled for politics of development. Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, about two weeks ago we were in Kipsigis. As the politicians were talking out there, I engaged one mzee in a chat and I asked him, \"This time round, who are you going to vote for as your President?\" The mzee looked at me. He did not mention any names, but he told me that he is going to vote for the milk price. I do not know who is the milk price. So, the message the mzee was giving is that this time they are going to vote for tangible economic benefits. They do not care what names we are called. I thought that was evidence of political maturity on the part of our people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, I have myself said that I do not want to be judged by the length or the beauty of the speeches that I make. I do not want to be judged by the number of adjectives that I add to my speeches. I have said that I want to be judged by what happens on the ground. I want to be judged by the number of poles which my Ministry is spreading all over the country and extending connectivity of electricity to our people. At the end of the day, the people will not remember the quarrels that we had as Members of Parliament. Long after we are dead, the quarrels are going to be buried with us. However, the buildings that we put up and the services that we give these people are going to live forever. So, I think our focus, and that is why we are supporting this Motion, is that we should encourage our people to pay taxes. Let us build this country both for us and our children. Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, I must say that wherever we go, we should also leave some good memories. Last weekend, I had a dinner in a hotel in Madrid, Spain. When some people there were told that I was from Kenya, they came and asked me about the Member of Parliament who speaks Spanish. They said that he had attended a lecture there some time back. \"There was a Kenyan Member of Parliament who spoke beautiful Spanish.\" However, they could not remember his name. They went on to say, \"You have very good Member of Parliament!\" So, I kept on imagining who is this from our Parliament who can speak Spanish. At that moment, I could not remember. Later on, when I asked for the physical features of the person, I was told that the Member of Parliament has a beard. I then remembered that it is only Prof. Anyang-Nyong'o who could have spoken Spanish."
}