HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 237266,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/237266/?format=api",
"text_counter": 250,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Kibunguchy",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Health",
"speaker": {
"id": 294,
"legal_name": "Enoch Wamalwa Kibunguchy",
"slug": "enoch-kibunguchy"
},
"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to also say one or two things about the Finance Bill. I would like to start off by joining my colleagues who have commended the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) for their work that has been exceptionally good. I am sure every right-thinking Kenyan is proud of the KRA. The KRA has made it possible for us to say that the economy of this country is now growing at 5.8 per cent. We should, as lawmakers and Kenyans especially, look beyond partisan politics and see what is good and beneficial for this country and our people and commend it. I would like to also unreservedly again commend the KRA for work well done. 3350 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 1, 2006 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we commend the enhanced revenue collection in this country, we should at the same time, be conscious of how the taxes are used. I thought this would be addressed in the Finance Bill although KRA's main objective is to raise revenue through taxation. I am saying this specifically because in the face of enhanced revenue collection, we still find our people, especially in the rural areas and in the urban slums, still living in abject and absolute poverty. We should be able at this time to find out ways and means of how we could lift the lives of these people. As much as we are looking at ways of raising taxes and this Bill really addresses itself to that, we should also at the same time be seeing how best we can address the problems of the majority of Kenyans. Even the people who live in places that you would say are fertile and productive, you will still find that majority of them live in abject poverty. I would like to spend a bit of time talking about this because there is absolutely no reason for us as a country to be proud of the enhanced revenue collection if we cannot look at the plight of the poor, marginalised and down-trodden people in our country; people who have variously been described as the \"wretched of the earth\". I would have loved if certain measures were brought up in this House for us to be able to address the plight of these people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we talk a lot about agriculture and I would like to commend the Minister for having removed the Sugar Development Levy (SDL) tax that has brought a lot of resentment in areas where I come from. We talk about agriculture and I think most times we just offer lip service to the people who are engaged in the agricultural industry. Agriculture is the backbone of the economy of this country but, at the moment, I think not very many people are making a decent living out of it. It is incumbent upon us to see how best we can address the plight of our farmers in whichever way. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have heard a lot about the sugar industry. A small fraction of my constituents grow sugar. The majority of them plant maize and beans and as we talk now and we have said this again and again, the people who are benefitting from the sweat of my constituents who plant maize are the middlemen. The farmer himself makes next to nothing. The middlemen move in very early at a time when the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) has not even opened their stores. Even as I speak now, those stores have not been opened and my estimate is that 70 to 80 per cent of the maize that was planted this planting season has already been snapped up by the middlemen. I think we \"must\" and I use that word very strongly, be able to keep pace with our farmers and to know when to open the stores. I always say that the NCPB, which is a major player in the cereal industry in this country, must play its role to be able among other things, stabilise the prices to be able to buy maize and store it for strategic reserves. However, more importantly, I think they should be able to trade just like everybody else so that they have money all the time even if they are buying food on behalf of the Government as strategic reserves. That is part of trading. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need to see how this growth rate can trickle down to our people in the rural areas, and I would have loved that the Minister looked at some of these measures that have worked in other countries. When you go to Uganda, you find people who are willing to put up factories and enterprises in the rural areas are given tax holidays as an incentive for them to set up their businesses in the rural areas. If we are going to open up the rural areas and look at how best to fight poverty this 5.8 per cent growth rate must trickle down to the rural areas. We must find ways to set up a fund, just like the Youth Enterprise Fund that was discussed in the Budget. Such a fund would look at communities and our women because it is women who work, toil and carry the burden of their families and communities. We must find a way of how this money can trickle down to the rural areas and urban slums. Tax holiday is one way that can help us open up the rural areas, we can have massive rural electrification programmes. I know the Minister November 1, 206 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3351 for Energy is looking at me but our people are restless and they want to see and also test the fruits of this impressive growth rate that we keep talking about. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to go to my second point. Of late, when enterprises and companies make their returns, they show that they make massive profits. The other day Safaricom Limited announced its results and we were looking at a profit in excess of Kshs10 billion. The same thing will happen when Celtel Kenya Limited, East Africa Breweries (EAB), British American Tobacco (BAT) and all banks announce their returns. Mumias Sugar Company is also going through some exciting times. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, these companies have done very well because Kenyans are using their products and supporting them. When the Minister was talking about people giving donations, I would have loved it if he went further and asked companies such as Safaricom Limited to do much more. Rather than come to Lugari to build one or two classrooms, they should plough back to their clients part of their profit in what is called corporate social responsibility. This is a term that is very fashionable today because companies have to give back to the people who have made it possible for them to get to where they are. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like corporate social responsibility to benefit areas which give maximum returns. One of the areas in this country that everybody talks about is our road network. It would have been very nice if a company like Safaricom Limited were to make maintenance of the Nakuru-Eldoret Road part of its corporate social responsibility. Instead of building one or two classrooms here and there, we would like these companies to do something that all Kenyans can be proud of. They should leave a legacy behind. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like Celtel Kenya Limited to build the Mariakani-Mombasa Road, EAB should build the Bungoma-Busia Road, BAT should build all the bypasses that we talk about in Nairobi and Barclays Bank of Kenya should open up the roads in the northern part of this country. The northern part of this country, in the long run, is going to be the lifeline of this country."
}