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{
    "id": 837738,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/837738/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 369,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Molo, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kuria Kimani",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13435,
        "legal_name": "Francis Kuria Kimani",
        "slug": "francis-kuria-kimani"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this Report by the Hon. Members. There are several areas that we should try to overemphasise. The Report talks about the Kenya Revenue Authority and the challenges that it is experiencing in terms of its delivery of tax collection from Kenyans. There is a specific clause that we need to overemphasise to the KRA. We have passed budget in this House on several occasions on the implementation of the regional electronic cargo tracking system that ensures that cargo is tracked from the time it docks at the port to the time it is delivered to its next destination. We continue to lose a lot of tax on this and have contraband goods that get into the market because this system has not been implemented. What is stopping the KRA from implementing this system? Is it that we are happy because revenue is being lost? Think about all those penalties that are also levied by the KRA. This is raising the cost of operation of business especially for those that import goods into this country. It is becoming highly expensive. This Report mentioned the East African Development Bank. It is impressive to notice that this bank was named as the best performing development bank in Africa in 2015 with a balance sheet of US$394 million and a portfolio of US$190 billion. The member states have underfunded this bank and when they fund it, the Report talks about late submission of their contributions to this bank. This Bank could revive our cottage industries in Kenya and East Africa and support the manufacturing agenda that we are talking about. If the East African Community is serious about implementation of its economic agenda for the region, we really need to think about this bank and invest in it. We talked about free mobility of labour across the region. How will we have free mobility of labour across the region when the curriculum in our universities remains unharmonised? Our fees structure remains unharmonised. Why does it cost so much in one university vis-a-vis in another and then we expect that those professionals who come out of those universities will compete competitively with other university graduates in the area? We should expedite the amendment of the protocol establishing the curriculum of universities within East Africa so that we harmonise both the programme and fees structure and ensure that we have enough and sufficient exchange programmes to support this education. In our engagement, we are also talking about the Ujirani Mwema Policy which is one of the policies of the EAC. How do we support this policy only when it is beneficial to our sister countries and not to our country? I went ahead and looked at what theories of regional integration we are looking at. Are we using constructivism where we say that just because we are in the same area and have the same interests, we should trade together? Or should we look at only where our country has a competitive advantage and not just saying that since we are the EAC, we should engage in business with those countries and not engage other countries? I wish that as Kenya seeks for her true state in the EAC, we will look at ensuring that we only engage where we have a competitive advantage. We should also look at globalisation more than we look at regionalism. I cannot overemphasise the example of this Safaricom director that was denied employment in Tanzania, even though she was qualified for that particular position. We are quick to open our borders but when will we harmonise our taxes? When we sit down as a country and pass our Value Added Tax (VAT) and excise duty that makes it expensive to operate in Kenya more than the other countries? What do our sister countries do? They do not amend their tax laws. Some of those big The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}