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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I stand to contribute to this important subject. The Minister gave a very elaborate Budget Speech. He outlined measures which, in his view, have actually improved the economy of this country. May I start with the first one, which is the free primary education. Mr. Speaker, Sir, lthe free primary education, although it has been praised as a good measure - and I also believe it is - was done without proper planning. The introduction of free primary education should have been accompanied by plans to June 26, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2017 increase the number of teachers and spaces available in schools for our children. That was not done and, as a result, we have many children who are learning under trees in this country. But even though they are learning under trees, the shortage of teachers has resulted in public schools performing much worse in terms of examination results than they used to do before the introduction of free primary education. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the economy is supposed to have improved. But if the economy has improved, it should be reflected in terms of the change in the quality of life of ordinary Kenyans. The prices of basic commodities, since the NARC Government came into power, have increased threefold. The prices of paraffin, sugar and flour have increased. Those are basic commodities that contribute to the improvement of peoples' basic life. Food is a basic need and without it, peoples' lives cannot improve in terms of quality. Mr. Speaker, Sir, on the front of corruption, it is claimed that the indices of corruption have improved. In this country, there appears to be a blame game between the Office of the Kenya Anti- Corruption Commission (KACC) and the Office of the Attorney General. KACC investigates case. They throw and bang them on the door of the Attorney-General. When inquiries are made as to why those cases have not been prosecuted, the Attorney-General throws them back and says: \"Proper investigations have not been done! We cannot prosecute on the basis of poorly- investigated issues\". KACC wants to be given prosecutorial powers. How can an investigator be given prosecutorial powers? Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you give an investigator prosecutorial power, then you are making him almost alone. He can decide to investigate shoddily and nobody checks it. Then he bangs you in court. Once he has banged you in court, your name is smeared. Whether you will be cleared or not is another matter all together. That cannot be given. The solution here is that the Attorney-General should do his job and KACC must do its job. Parliament has done its job and both of them have been given sufficient powers to perform their duties. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the approach of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) in collecting revenues--- We want to commend them. They have done a good job. They have improved the collection of revenue. But the approach to revenue collection is so dogmatic. It is just aimed at collecting revenue. It is not meant to facilitate the growth of the economy. Collection of revenue alone, without giving facilitation to traders, should actually not be an end in itself. In countries where trade facilitation has been incorporated in the revenue collection, they have made more strides in the development fronts, than countries which just make revenue collection an end in itself. That makes it very difficult for people to do business. If you go to Mombasa, you will notice some measures of improving revenue collection that were introduced in this country. I understand that system is called Simba . You will find that the Port is piling with containers because there is inability to clear them. There is combing of all goods that come in without considering that the business community needs facilitation in order to thrive and, therefore, expand the economy. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we have been told that the deficit will be met from the sale of public properties. The Minister has said that he is going to receive Kshs36 billion from the sale of public properties. Selling public properties should not be the aim of privatisation. Privatisation should be aimed at improving the management of public services and delivery of those services to the people. But when you sell assets which have been acquired through the sweat of Kenyan people over the years, to private individuals, you are not adding value. It is, therefore, even futile to include such a thing in the Budget and make it looks as if it is permanent feature which will come. If you sell it this year, how are you going to fill that gap in the next year? Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is tax which is likely to be abused. Many traders will now use that tax to overflow sugar into the country under the pretext that it is going to the industry and then it ends up in the shelves in the supermarkets. The Government has no machinery to control where that sugar will go once it comes into the market. If the Minister wanted to exempt those people because 2018 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 26, 2007 he claims that some of the industries are re-locating to Uganda or Tanzania because of that levy, he should have given the Kenya Sugar Board a compensation for the loss of that revenue which is meant to help the sugar-cane farmer. Year in, year out since Mr. Kimunya became a Minister, he has been very unfair to the sugar-cane farmers. Last year, he introduced very draconian measures against the sugar industry. This year again, he is coming up with a measure to waive loans advanced to pyrethrum and coffee farmers. What is happening to the sugar-cane farmers? Why have they not been given a waiver like it was given to the pyrethrum and coffee farmers? In fact, the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) is selling people's property and yet the Minister is only favouring those particular products which are grown where he comes from. That is unfair and we want the Minister to have a look at it. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the introduction of 20 per cent levy on treated or mineral water is another thing which the Minister should not have dared to do. If you want to limit the drinking of that water by putting heavy tax on it, then he should have done that if Kenyans had access to portable water all over the country. But we know that the Government has not even moved any nearer to satisfying a quarter of the people's needs for portable water. Therefore, by making that water expensive, it is going to increase water-borne diseases in areas where we use mineral water whenever we have guests at home. This is a very unfair tax which should be opposed by all means. When the Minister was introducing the 20 per cent taxation or Excise Duty on imported second-hand motor vehicle spare parts, that is another tax which the Minister must be knowing something else he intends to do rather than to help the ordinary mwananchi . It is not the spare parts which cause accidents in this country. We are aware that the cause of accidents in this country is poor roads, over-speeding and behaviour of the taxi-drivers and those driving public vehicles. Mr. Speaker, Sir, Mr. Michuki did very well when he was the Minister for Transport. At that time, accidents went down very drastically."
}