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"content": "way that it eliminates the vices that have emerged in the past associated with harambees. It wants to humanize harambee and put it in such a way that it meets its original intended objective; a truly voluntary fund without any form of coercion; a truly voluntary contribution which encourages philanthropy but, at the same time, does not subject those who contribute to unnecessary burden or taxation. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in the western world, rich people are encouraged to contribute to philanthropy. In actual fact, there are research institutions devoted to studying philanthropy. I remember not too long ago, there was a group of people in Kenya touring East Africa, studying philanthropy in East Africa. I was interviewed by this group. They were wondering why we do not encourage people to contribute philanthropically by making sure that when they make contributions, that is deducted from their tax. Because in the west, those people have established foundations where they put part of the profits they make so that those foundations can do philanthropic work. They could as well have waited for the Government to tax their profits so that all the money goes to the Government. This is because they also realized that the Government cannot do everything. So, rather than wait for the Governments to create foundations, individuals create foundations and put money there. Now, our form of foundation here is really harambee. So, when people contribute, we should also be fair enough to make sure that they do not pay taxes twice. We should make sure that the money that they pay for philanthropy is taken away from their income and then their income is taxed fairly. This is the aim of part “b,” which says:- “Establish procedures for ensuring that harambee contributions are tax deductable;” That is exactly what it means. I think some people may have misunderstood it and either thought that there would be a tax for harambees; no, that is not the case. There would be philanthropy. Harambee is one of them. When you do contribute to it, the public or Government also appreciates and do not visit you with another heavy taxation. Secondly, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Sen. G.G. Kariuki thought that by passing this law, we were going to interfere with personal and individual decisions. I do not think the law will tell you which harambee to go to and which one not to. No, the law is just going to say “Please, we encourage harambees to go ahead and be a form of philanthropy in our nation, but we do not want it to be abused.” Although the Public Officer Ethics Act is now very strictly applied, but we do not want somebody to say, “I am going to be married and I am going to have a pre-wedding harambee.” The contribution then goes on for six months and the wedding is never held. These are some of the individual geniuses who have misused harambees, and which this law is trying to eliminate and protect the public from their vices. So, to the contrary, because the rich used the money, as Sen. G.G. Kariuki explained very well here, in harambees to intimidate others, especially politically; now we do not want them to intimidate others. We want everybody to contribute, but contribute in such a way that, like Sen. Wetangula was saying, it is not done in an obscene manner that intimidates, and that is actually what encourages corruption. Again, if you look at the Public Officers Ethics Act, that is really illegal. So, the voluntary nature of harambee is still preserved. Secondly, harambee is not eliminating other personal contributions, like Sen. Joyce Sijeny was saying. If, indeed, you see a lady who is expecting and she comes to The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}