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{
    "id": 664286,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/664286/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 75,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kang’ata",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1826,
        "legal_name": "Irungu Kang'ata",
        "slug": "irungu-kangata"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. Allow me to support this amendment. When you look at the level of this country’s support to our agriculture sector, it is not commensurate to the gains we derive from it. It is in our books that the agriculture sector provides employment to about two-thirds of Kenyans, if not more. Comparing how much we give to agriculture, this is very minimal. Looking at our Budget, you will realize that the largest amount goes to the education sector. The outcome of this is very negligible. Kenya needs to probably buttress that issue. There should be proof as to why we need to support this Bill. Looking at the education sector, Kenya is ranked No.7 globally in terms of the money it puts into this sector as a percentage of its Budget. Therefore, a lot of resources are tied to education. What about agriculture? It is very negligible. To the best of my knowledge, I think we allocated between Kshs50 billion and Kshs60 billion to the agriculture sector. To me, this is scandalous, taking into account how important that sector is. I have some problem with this Bill and, therefore, I will only support it subject to clarifications from my colleagues. One issue I have with this Bill is once we pass it, are the gains or benefits derived going to percolate to the farmers? There is likelihood that, once we exempt that amount of money, the people who are going to benefit will be transporters only. Remember there are several players in the entire value chain of the sugar industry. We have the farmers, transporters and millers. This is only an exception to the transportation costs. The transporters are not the farmers and millers. The question that arises is how we are going to ensure that once we exempt transportation costs, that amount will percolate to the farmers or, at least, the millers. Taking into account that the miller is quite important in the entire value chain of sugar, to me, the best approach would be zero-rating instead of exempting. There is a difference between zero-rating and exempting. “Zero-rating” means the transporter will be making returns to Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) at a zero rate. This then 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."
}