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{
    "id": 377152,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/377152/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 376,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Nyasuna",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 590,
        "legal_name": "Gladys Atieno Nyasuna",
        "slug": "gladys-atieno-nyasuna"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this debate. This Bill has drawn a lot of public attention. The form in which it was brought to the House at the very beginning looked completely unacceptable. I have gone through the Report of the Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade. The Bill now looks a lot better than it was at the beginning. I am happy with the move by the Committee to bring amendments to include a lot of the basic items in the list of exempt items. I am particularly happy that kerosene will now be on the list of exempt items because kerosene is really essential. When you tax kerosene, you get to the life of that very poor Kenyan. In the villages, kerosene is bought in some very small containers. I was wondering how much of that we were going to reduce with taxation on kerosene. Therefore, I am happy with the Committee’s amendments and hope that the House will pass them to exempt kerosene, unga and other essential items from taxation. Hon. Speaker, what remains of great concern to me is that all the items that people had complained about have now been included in the list of items exempted from VAT, with the exception of sanitary towels. For women, sanitary towels are even more important than unga . Imposing VAT on sanitary towels will return our women to using blankets. We have many girls who have dropped out of school because they are unable to access sanitary towels. We have begun programmes in this country to provide sanitary towels to schools but we know that they have not reached all the schools and all the poor students. As I speak, I am looking at the Chairman of the Committee, so that he can tell the women of this country why everything else, except sanitary towels, has been included on the list of the zero-rated items. The women of this country are looking forward to getting an answer as to why sanitary towels have not been zero-rated, as they were previously."
}