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"content": "impose a levy on even county roads without consulting the counties and the county governors. This is not right. Secondly, the Kenyan taxpayer is so over taxed that any law that pretends to introduce a new level of taxation, in whatever form or manifestation, is misguided. I urge this House that a clause such as this should be rejected, so that the Bill ends up in mediation to change this. This is because once this Bill becomes an Act of Parliament and is in operation, the two Cabinet Secretaries will sit, agree and impose a levy through a gazette notice and start taxing Kenyans without even involving the Houses of Parliament. Worse still, they are being given authority to levy even on a small road from Bulahawa to Mandera, Kirinyaga to some small place in Kirinyaga County or from Chwele to Mt. Elgon in my county. This is not acceptable and this House should protect the people we represent in the counties. Mr. Speaker, Sir, equally, the Bill does not even say, when that money is collected, how it will be rationally distributed across the country. We live in this country where we know that development has always been skewed towards those who are in power. Go to the areas of those who have been in power – whether it is the old President Kenyatta, President Moi, the new President Kenyatta, Mzee Kibaki – you will find that the bulk of infrastructure is skewed and gerrymandered to favour those in power. Areas that have no opportunity to produce anybody in power – like where my good friend, Sen. (Dr.) Ali, comes from – saw tarmac when devolution came. Children were learning about tarmac roads in textbooks. Now that devolution has come, we want to see the national cake being distributed equitably and to benefit the people of this country. There is something that is also lacking and, again, my good friend, Sen. (Eng.) Mahamud, has been a Permanent Secretary in this sector. There is a chaotic situation in the infrastructure contracting. You should have taken judicial notice to ask Sen. (Eng.) Ephraim Maina to declare his interest. Being a contractor, he should declare his interest before he talks about contracts. He did not, but it is something that we all agree with. In any sensible jurisdiction that you go to, there is affirmative action for local contractors. In fact, you may recall that we used to have a circular in this country that is no longer referred to or enforced. The circular required and provided that in any competitive contractual situation, a local contractor, who is 15 to 20 per cent more expensive than a foreigner, will still be given the contract as affirmative action. Today, there is an invasion of foreigners in every sector. Even in contracts of Kshs100 million, which are very small contractors in terms of major road construction, the locals cannot compete with foreigners. I would expect this Bill to have a specific provision that insulates, protects and gives affirmative action to local contractors. In the old days, as you may remember, when foreigners came to this country, they were not allowed to incorporate companies and start operating without local content. So, you always had local partners. Of course, this was thoroughly abused because all the big guys like Permanent Secretaries (PSs), directors and so on, are the ones that took those opportunities to become partners with foreigners. That is why the richest people in this country are not people who have worked hard, but people who have worked with the Government and in the Government by cutting shortcuts and using their positions to enrich themselves. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}