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"speaker_name": "Mr. Gumo",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me a chance to also support this Motion. As much as we all agree that this was a poor man's Budget, there are certain areas that show that this is mainly a tax Budget. We cannot live in a country where whenever we want money, we must tax our people. Kenyans are already too taxed compared to those other African countries. The capital gains tax used to be there before and it was removed. The majority of our people sell their properties because they are not able to manage their finances. Some of them sell them because of personal problems, either to pay school fees for their children or just to maintain their affairs. If we tax whatever they get after they sell their properties, then we will be exploiting them. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are very many taxes on properties. Today, if you sell a property, you will pay a stamp duty. There are very exorbitant annual rates on properties and if you default, you pay nearly twice the amount. Before you sell your property, the Government makes sure that you have paid all the due rates. The percentage of the stamp duty is a bit too high. The Minister should review this tax. Secondly, the Minister did away with road licences and increased the price of fuel. The prices of fuel are already too high. The majority of the people who use public transport do own vehicles. You cannot do away with road licences and increase the price of fuel and think that you are helping the mwananchi . The mwananchi cannot afford to buy a car. He uses the public transport. If you increase the price of fuel, you tax the mwananchi . The cost of transport from Kangemi to Town has almost doubled because the price of fuel is too high. There is nothing you can do about it. People are walking from their homes to their places of work and back. We would rather retain road licences than increase the price of fuel. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have just heard that the Commissioner-General of the KRA has banned the importation of vehicles from Dubai. Owning a vehicle today is a necessity, particularly in Nairobi. Most children go to school very far and parents need cheap vehicles to take the children 1756 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 29, 2006 to school. If you stop the parents from buying cheap vehicles, where do you expect them to get money to buy new vehicles? It is not the problem of this country to know where the sellers in Dubai got their vehicles. Interpol should go to Dubai and find out where they are getting the vehicles from. If you go to Dubai, buy a vehicle and you are given a log-book or a receipt and you bring it here, you will not have stolen that vehicle. That is a different country. Why do you want to carry a problem which is not yours? Kenya is a very small market of vehicles. No other country has banned the importation of vehicles from Dubai. These vehicles are being sold in India, Pakistan, other African countries and even England. What is Kenya to say that it is not going to import vehicles from Dubai? Some of you think that Kenya is a very important place. It is not compared to these other countries. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, corruption is another problem we have. When we talked about the Margaryans in this House, some hon. Members, particularly those on the Government side, could not allow us to do so and yet they are crooks. I do not see why the Government should set up a commission of inquiry and yet they knew who these people were. They were thieves and killers. I have never seen a businessman wearing those gold crosses everywhere. We have so many investors who come to this country. The moment you see a person wearing gold ornaments all over, you must suspect him. We have rich people in this country who do not even wear those things. They come here, do their businesses and go back. Here, there is somebody who you do not know properly, you do not have his address and yet you give him guns. You allow him to even walk on the runway at the airport. He walks everywhere. He imports containers and does not allow the Government to inspect them. When you say something about them here, the Ministers and hon. Members from that side are up protecting people they do not know."
}