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{
    "id": 497471,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/497471/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 74,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Wambugu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 149,
        "legal_name": "Clement Muchiri Wambugu",
        "slug": "clement-wambugu"
    },
    "content": "is where the biggest problem is. Thereafter, there are many other conditions introduced to make sure that Kenyans do not operate airlines. Hon. Members will remember when I was trying to lobby on the Floor of the House recently because of taxes which were being imposed by the Government. Even after we passed a Motion in this House, the Government continued to impose Value Added Tax (VAT) on aircraft and aircraft parts. What type of a country are we in? When are we going to support our people? That is why foreign airlines dominate this place. Take an example of training. Any operator anywhere in the world, or any business, has to factor in the operating costs of all kinds. Training a pilot in South Africa, where we take our children, costs Kshs11 million. Training a single pilot in most of the flying schools in Kenya costs almost Kshs7 million, but when, as the Member for Mathioya, I negotiated and got the cost down to about Kshs3 million, I was branded a thief. What type of country are we talking about? When are we going to even develop our human resource to make sure that we reduce some of the costs of operations in the air transport industry? Kenya is one of the countries where airlines incur the highest fuel costs. Why? What is the Government doing? I am challenging the Departmental Committee on Energy, Communication and Information to go out and check what they can do, so that at least we reduce the cost on aircraft fuel. There are so many other things, including parking fee. I do not know whether this is the only source of revenue for the Government. We are asking that the Government starts to support some of the other local operators, like African Express, which is locally operated. The airline is operating with a lot of hurdles. It has been having so many problems. We have also got other companies like the East African Safaris which cannot move because of taxes. Fly 540 also has so many problems just because the Government is not coming in to support these industries. How are we going to even achieve Vision 2030 at this pace? Hon. Deputy Speaker, there are very many ways of reducing costs and making flying cheaper for everybody. We have got the air fields which are coming in but what are their maintenance standards? Most of the airlines and the local operators that we have might not be able to go to an air field like Kakamega because of its poor state. Busia Airfield and others are in deplorable conditions. We request the Government to come up with a proper plan of developing our air fields. I have very many things to talk about in this debate. We have talked about a flying school. A long time ago, we used to have Soroti Flying School, which is in Uganda. When problems emerged, Kenyans withdrew. We no longer send any students to that flying school. Other countries are enjoying the facility as our Government just keeps quiet, watching its people suffer rather than establish a facility where we can take our people for training. We need to train flight engineers, flight dispatchers, air traffic controllers, pilots and other specialists. If we do so, even the monopoly that we are talking about will be a thing of the past. Hon. Deputy Speaker, other countries have developed their infrastructure so much, especially the air navigation infrastructure. In Kenya, we still have the old system for navigation – things we call VORs and NDBs, which most people might not understand what they are. In order to make flying cheaper, other countries have installed modern equipment for navigation. The world is going the ADS-B way, where you do not require any other facilities on the ground but you can navigate from one point to another The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}