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{
    "id": 245488,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/245488/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 160,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. C. Kilonzo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 46,
        "legal_name": "Charles Mutavi Kilonzo",
        "slug": "charles-kilonzo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I withdraw and apologise. We know that the Government spends a lot of money to maintain vehicles. Another good part of the Budget is the allocation of Kshs200 million to revive the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC). This is a very good action by the Government. The other issue is the 1668 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 28, 2006 reduction of duty on bicycles. This was a move in the right direction. The other very important thing was the establishment of the Youth Enterprise Fund, to which Kshs1 billion was allocated. I want to urge the Government to ensure that this money is allocated impartially. We all know what the Ministers have been doing in allocation of resources. When funds come, they tend to favour their fellow Ministers. The bad part of the Budget is the issue of withdrawal of employers' contributions to retirement schemes. In this regard, the Minister only proposed to avail funds to only those people leaving the country for good. It would have been much better if he reduced the mandatory retirement age from 55 to 45. We know that a retiree can use pension contributions to start a business. Why should you avail retirement funds at the age of 55 years when the life expectancy in this country is 46 years? The current tax on rent from residential property is 30 per cent. That has made most landlords think of evading taxation by all means. It would have been better if this rate was reduced to, perhaps, 15 per cent in order to encourage property owners just to walk to the KRA offices and pay the tax. With regard to the road licence which was scrapped recently, the assumption by the Minister for Finance is that it only served the purpose of tax collection. By doing away with the road licence it means that even the log book is not really an important document. If your car is stolen today, all one needs to do is to pay insurance for the vehicle and put it in on the road. The Government has no means of verifying the authenticity of the vehicles on the road as far as ownership is concerned. Increasing the Roads Maintenance Fuel Levy was a bad move. This means that the cost of transport, production and consumables will increase too. The Minister said that he was going to improve the management of the money provided in the Budget and avoid duplication. He also said that he was going to transfer the money set aside for bursaries to the CDF. In essence, the Minister for Finance has, indeed, scrapped bursaries. There are constituencies which were getting Kshs12 million through the Ministry of Education. Such constituencies will only be able to obtain, under the CDF Act, 10 per cent. That means that the maximum they will get will be about Kshs4 million or Kshs5 million. We need to have that money reinstated. Again, the Government failed to address the issue of lack of water in the ASAL areas. The Kshs1.5 billion allocated for this purpose is a drop in the ocean. Where the Assistant Minister for Finance and I come from, we have one known dam called Munyu. This dam would really have helped the people of my constituency. Such a dam will require not less than Kshs10 billion to revamp. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the ugly part of the Budget is its management. That issue has been raised here. The Government has one problem. We have been passing Budgets, and yet the funds are never utilised. Last year we had over Kshs8 billion which was returned to the Treasury from the Ministry of Roads and Public Works, the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and others. It will be very bad if the funds provided for in this year's Budget are not utilised. Another ugly part of the Budget are the continuous promises that are made to us. This Government promised to construct bypasses for us. They promised to construct the Northern Bypass, Southern Bypass, Eastern Bypass, a link road and a flyover. This is now the fourth year and nothing has been done. As I talk today, some of the roads are in very bad shape. For example, the Nairobi-Machakos Junction and Thika Road are in a bad state. We really want to see our roads being maintained to acceptable standards. The biggest problem with the implementation of the Budget is corruption, and that is why nobody has talked about the 97.5 per cent of the Budget which remains under the control of the central Government. Many hon. Members have talked about the 2.5 per cent of the Budget because there are very few cases of corruption in the usage of this portion of money. It is our prayer that the June 28, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1669 money allocated in the Budget will be utilised properly. You can have a good Budget, but with insecurity, it will be of no use. Insecurity in this country has reached dangerous levels and that is not unacceptable. This is the only place where a foreigner draws a gun at the airport and nothing is done to him other than being deported."
}