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"content": "turnover as royalties to the respective counties where they operate so as to enable resources of specific counties to be directly utilized in the counties to address specific social needs and, thereby, act as an incentive for the said counties to optimize their capacity to raise revenue. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is a well known fact that Kenya, across all the counties, even in terms of regions, is well endowed with natural resources. For the sake of this Motion, when we are talking about natural resources, we are actually referring to all the natural resources, not just focusing, for example, on minerals. We are thinking about all possible natural resources such as wildlife, water, oil, et cetera . There is a lot of underground water in Turkana. If this water can be maximally used, there will be enough water in this country. Just cutting across the various counties, we find that, for example, there is a lot of titanium in Kwale, Malindi and Lamu. There is a lot of soda ash in Lake Magadi, fluorspar in Kerio Valley, iron ore in Taita, Meru, Kitui and Kilifi. It is possible to really generate a lot of revenue from these natural resources. From data that has been computed and put forward by the Mineral and Geology Department over a period of just one year, from 2009 to 2010, there was an increase in terms of revenues that was collected from natural resources of about Kshs14.8 billion. This was an increment from Kshs.9.4 billion. We can raise a lot of revenue for this country if we were to fully exploit natural resources. However, at the county level, there has not been enough effort to exploit those resources as much as possible. Most of this income has been in the form of licenses, for example, such as prospecting licenses in the mining industries and other licenses that investors are expected to pay for. But in terms of the actual natural resource exploitation, some counties have done better than other counties. Of course, it is very clear that the creation of national revenue is very, very critical for our country. That national revenue is raised at various levels and if I turn to the Constitution, the allocation and the ways that revenue can be collected is stipulated in Article 209, which is about power to impose taxes and charges that can be imposed at two levels. It states:- “(1) Only the national government may impose — (a) income tax; (b) value-added tax; (c) customs duties and other duties on import and export goods; and (d) excise tax.” (3) A county may impose— (a) property rates; (b) entertainment taxes; and (c) any other tax that it is authorised to impose by an Act of Parliament.” Mr. Speaker, Sir, from these taxes the Government is able to collect, it is possible for them to exploit the natural resources. As much as we can tap these natural resources at the level of collecting revenue, this has not been the case. Therefore, the gap is still there. So, apart from the sources of collecting revenue, there is also the issue of how that revenue collected will be shared out. I think we have spent a lot of time for the last one week talking about revenue allocation across the various counties and how that has been 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."
}