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{
    "id": 601920,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/601920/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 168,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Oyoo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2408,
        "legal_name": "James Onyango Oyoo",
        "slug": "james-onyango-oyoo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me the opportunity to speak to this very important Bill. From the outset, I want to say there is common knowledge of every right thinking Kenyan, that Kenya is not known to be a mineral producing county, save for the few discoveries that were made in the recent past. We have had our economic hope pegged on agriculture, which was messed up about a century ago and it is now a pale shadow of what we used to know. Then came in the “Boeing Tourist Destinations,” which we had and we chose political expediency to take center stage. Now Kenya solely relies on taxes that we collect, despite the fact that Kenyans and foreign businessmen who want to do business in Kenya are crying that Kenya is a highly taxed country. The object of this Bill is to enable the Government tax agencies to spruce up the tax collection mechanisms, which I believe streamlined under President Kibaki’s regime. There was lot of discipline, although we cried that there was a lot of tribalism in KRA. Even if we were to go back to that perceived tribalism, it can help us meet our targets and make Kenya economically buoyant. What we are witnessing today is not very good. We tend not to meet our targets and a lot of blame is being put on the tax collection mechanisms. Kenyans like a lot of blame game. We need to do research and find out why the tax collection spirit is going down. Why is KRA not able to meet targets? A lot of things have been done and my attention was drawn to the recent directive by His Excellency the President that a lifestyle audit exercise be carried out by tax collection agencies, mainly the KRA. This is a very good observation, but it should not be confined to the tax collection or the KRA alone. Those of us who are in this House, and who are handling dockets like the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) and many other Government agencies where we get funds should do likewise. In effect we want to use those funds to diligently spread development that aims at changing the lives of people. We encounter a lot of problems, more so where civil servants are called upon to help us pursue, or implement, programs. It is not KRA alone. We can spruce up the collection mechanism; we must also find out a better way of controlling our expenditure. We must also find a better way of keeping what we already have. Anything that will make it necessary for you to bring a Government officer on board--- For example, in KURA we have monies that are meant for doing roads. It is mandatory that monies are channeled through Regional Managers in our various counties. Those Government officers are small lords wallowing in wealth. People complain that Members of Parliament (MPs) earn a lot of money. I want to say without fear of contradiction that we are not earning small money by all standards. It is only unfortunate that a civil servant who earns Kshs300,000 for use by him and his family is better off than an MP, who earns about Kshs1 million for him and the constituency due to the spirit of dependency that we have in Kenya. A Member of Parliament must meet this threshold to sustain his job. Otherwise, we are not small income earners. You will live in an up market estate. The people who patronise high profile resorts are Government officers. Where do they get the money from? From the small money that the tax collector collects on behalf of the Government, the Government gives to the Member of Parliament in good heart to implement certain development projects in his constituency, but the Regional Manager in charge makes sure that 60 per cent goes to his pocket. He will take you round and round even if you report anywhere. He will take part of the money to his bosses to corrupt them, and you will be labelled a noise maker. If you 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."
}