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{
    "id": 655908,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/655908/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 209,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. From where I sit, I do not think there is any Kenyan who would be reluctant to pay taxes if they were aimed at addressing problems facing our country. Our taxation regime is more of a punishment than a source of revenue for the country and for tackling the problems we face. That is why some people have described a fine as a tax for doing something wrong and a tax being a fine for doing something right in the sense that people who diligently pay taxes more often than not, do not see commensurate services to those taxes. It has been said that the best things in life are free but sooner or later, the Government will find a way to tax even those free things. Our aim has been to build Kenya by buying Kenya. The only way to do that is to develop our own industries. Kenya today is more or less an import country. It is no wonder our problems continue spiraling. I want to advise whichever Government that would be because being in Government and the Opposition are not permanent conditions, that whenever we levy taxes just like when we sheer sheep, it is worth to stop when we get down to the skin. When you overtax citizens, their attitudes change. Why do we aim to develop larger industries? We are imposing levies and tariffs to tanned or crust hides and skins of swine, without wool on or hair on at 80 per cent. This is failing to know when you get down to the skin. The 30th President of the Republic of the United States of America, the late Calvin Coolidge once said, “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalised robbery.” Are we going to legalise robbery through indirect or direct taxation such as what we are proposing? If this House passes this Bill the way it has been proposed, it would amount to insensitivity to the way Kenyans out there are living. As I conclude, the intentions of this Bill might be good but its framing is completely wrong. If it is left in this manner without copious supply of amendments, I will definitely oppose. Whatever tax regime we have in this country, it can only make sense if it aims to tackle our problems. Extreme inequality in this country is a major problem that creates other problems. As leaders, we should be asking why Kenya being the largest economy and our income per capita which is almost twice that of Uganda and Tanzania, has almost 50 per cent of its population living below the poverty line. The reason for that is found on the extreme inequality in our nation. No wonder most people have said that much as the richest person in East Africa lives in Kenya, the poorest person also lives here. The moment we have a society that is designed in that format, we are preparing the people we leave behind to take us down. The walls around our houses do not matter. We will only be secure in those homes but even then, our homes will look like jails. Why do we put electric fences and razor wires around our homes? It is not for fear of lions and buffalos from Nairobi National Park but for fear of fellow Kenyans. We must do something about extreme inequality in this country if we are to live in harmony."
}