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{
    "id": 467121,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/467121/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 311,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Nyenze",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1987,
        "legal_name": "Francis Mwanzia Nyenze (Deceased)",
        "slug": "francis-mwanzia-nyenze"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker there are many retirees in the country. The teachers who retired were awarded something by the highest court in this country. They were to be paid some money because that was a court ruling. The retired teachers, who are old and sickly, cannot now lead a normal life because of the high cost of living. Let us think about the jobless youth, the widows, orphans, the old and sickly. Those people just want to lead ordinary lives. If the employed people who are poorly paid cannot put food on the table, what about those who have no income? There are so many families who have nothing to live on. The Jubilee Government promised that it will promote education so that every child in this country gets educated. However, when you tax exercise books, sanitary towels, pencils and everything educational, how will education be affordable to the poor Kenyans who live below the poverty line? Those people form the largest segment of our society. Today, I read in the newspaper that most hotels in the Coast Province have no tourists. Business is below 30 per cent in most of those hotels. This country, we know, depends on tourism for its growth. Imagine introducing some kind of tax that will keep away the tourists, how do we grow our economy? We need to rethink this issue of taxation so that we can realize the double-digit growth of our economy. We want to support the Jubilee Government to realize the double-digit growth of our economy. It is good for them and for us too. However, when you do a flawed kind of taxation, where the poorest are taxed extremely, where do we go? This is the wrong way as far as economic growth is concerned. This Government should think and overhaul the whole taxation regime. Look at the capital gain taxation, that is where the tax money should come from. We should tax the rich; people who own big companies and so on. I am happy today because the chief taxman, Mr. Njiraini, discovered that most of the big multinationals, through audit firms, do not pay billions in form of taxes. This is a credit to Mr. Njiraini. This is something I have been suspicious about for a long time, but now it has been discovered. If further in- roads can be made to those big multinationals and rich Kenyans, then we will be in a position to cushion the less endowed Kenyans. We would be moving in the right direction then. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if the budget deficit that the Treasury wanted to plug was Kshs10 billion, there are other ways of getting that money and not through taxing the poor and the vulnerable. I am sure hon. Lang’at, an experienced financial manager, agrees with me. I am sure he feels that this tax system is faulty."
}