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{
    "id": 577846,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/577846/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 296,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kipyegon",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1453,
        "legal_name": "Johana Ngeno Kipyegon",
        "slug": "johana-ngeno-kipyegon"
    },
    "content": "Thank you once again, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this chance. I also wish to support this particular Bill which is intended to bring sanity to some products which are bringing chaos in the country. Before I even delve into that, I would wish to congratulate the Chairman although there are some few issues which he failed to look into seriously. Some Members of this House from Central Province are complaining majorly about the killer brews which are not as a result of some of the factories that we have in the country, but as a result of the many illegal factories that are manufacturing those brews and are known. They are not even registered or licensed. Therefore, even the products they are making are illegal in the first place. So, we need to differentiate between those illegal factories which are manufacturing illicit brews and those ones which have been licensed and are meant to produce the brews which are legal. First, I wish to support the Chairman on the question of the plastic bags although most of our families in the villages use these plastic bags as a means of carrying one, two or three things. They use it to carry unga, vegetables and such like things. Sometimes, as much as we are complaining that they are also littering the environment, we must also bear in mind that these bags are used by most of the families. Some of us may argue that we are having these kind of bags with these other expensive bags but the people in the village may not access those ones because of the limitations of finances. We also need to see if we are helping those people down there by suggesting to ban or even overtaxing plastic bags. We should have also looked at how we can recycle these plastic bags so that they can be reused. I would also wish to seriously look at the question of killer brews. Taxation on spirits and other drinks has been raised. When you also look at the ordinary beers, the levies have also been raised. But there is something which I had discussed with the Chairman sometimes back and I do not know if he forgot or we can bring that if it was to be amended. Although we are looking at beers, we have to look at it in two areas. For example, the products used in making beer; wheat and barley, are giving our farmers an earning. This will motivate them to grow more barley and wheat. That can be used to produce this particular beer. Sometimes, when you overtax them, the production will go down. Therefore, even the farmers will also suffer. Take the example of Keg and Senator drinks; Senator is produced from sorghum. It was overtaxed last year. It was taxed over 50 per cent thus killing its production. Even the industry which was making that drink closed that section of the factory. It has two ripple effects. It affected the farmers who were planting sorghum because nobody could even buy them. The East African Breweries Limited (EABL) could not buy it. The only market we had was the Meru area where people just use it as a staple food. The major consumer which was EABL closed the consumption of that plant. You remember that most of the areas which used to 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."
}