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{
    "id": 577851,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/577851/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 301,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kipyegon",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1453,
        "legal_name": "Johana Ngeno Kipyegon",
        "slug": "johana-ngeno-kipyegon"
    },
    "content": "It is not. I cannot say that it is consumed by the Members of that House but it is a brand name for that drink. It was made from sorghum. When this drink was overtaxed, the people who used to drink it went to the second generation drinks. That is what is killing our people right now. They went to the cheaper illicit brews. These are the people who used to drink these Keg and Senator drinks. We should relook at overtaxing these drinks because of these two issues: The farmers and the people who were forced to go and drink those other illicit and cheap brews. I believe that the Chairman must have put serious considerations on the tax regime. He only talked about the importation of used vehicles. We should also look deeply into exempting certain machinery from taxation especially the farm machinery. This country is still an agricultural country. We cannot promote agriculture if we do not use machineries. There was a time when farm machinery were tax free. Farmers used to import machinery like tractors and so many others. I do not know what happened and then tax was introduced again. So, we need to relook at the farm machineriy. The country is only looking at the construction equipment from which they removed taxation. The farm machinery should also follow suit because these are the equipment which farmers use in helping elevate farming in this country. So, as much as we might want to remove or exempt construction equipment, we must also look at exempting the farm machinery so that our farmers can access cheap machinery. I am also happy because we have harmonised the way we tax with other countries. For example, people have been forced to import vehicles to Uganda and then they bring them across the border thus denying this country that taxation. Because this country’s taxation is very high, people would just prefer to go to Uganda or Tanzania to import their vehicles there and then they bring them to Kenya simply because their taxation is almost half of ours. I am happy because we are trying to harmonise the taxes of all these countries. Although we also look at how these levies or excise duty works, we must also understand that. I am happy because the way the Chairman and the previous regimes have been doing is majorly the reallocation of resources from the rich to the poor by taxing or overtaxing the rich. We are trying to balance and put the people in the same level because the poor man down there has nothing to be taxed or even if they do, they are rarely taxed. So, this taxation also will also help us balance, bring together and help the poor man down there by taxing the big man up here. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I support."
}