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"id": 841557,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/841557/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
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"speaker": {
"id": 13165,
"legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
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"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for giving me this chance. I want to congratulate my colleague, Sen. Wetangula, for bringing such an important issue before this House this afternoon; the issue of the ballooning debt that has captured the attention of the nation. For the first time in this country, Kenyans are getting extremely interested with what their parliamentarians are doing. Madam Temporary Speaker, if you have watched the traffic, both online and listened to radio stations and the news items, I do not think there has ever been a time when Kenyans have been more interested in the work that their legislators are doing other than this time. That tells you that Kenyans are hurting and this matter is of extreme importance to them. I want to confess here that when the issue of the 8 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) came up, for the very first time, when I was doing my public functions in the constituency, I was confronted by young and old alike asking me, as their legislator, to perhaps see to it if there is anything I can do about this issue and raise it on the Floor of the House. Unfortunately, many people we represent do not understand the current architecture of our Constitution, where certain things that are considered to be Money Bills do not see the light of the day in this House. Madam Temporary Speaker, this is a theory I wish us to pursue one of these days, because this monster that keeps on cropping up every time, that as Senate, we try to stamp our authority; an authority that we have legitimately earned on issues of extreme national importance, we are limited and told that our duty is only county. When the national Government borrows, does it not affect counties? Where is it that they get the money to pay from? The first item of charge on any national budget is the public debt and, therefore, when the national Government borrows, it affects the amount of money we are sending to counties. Therefore, it is my argument that we need to consider going the way of advisory opinion number one, which gave this House the powers to legislate on the Division of Revenue and the County Allocation of Revenue. We should question on such matters that are of great national importance as what is being considered, whether the Senate has a place. Of course, we have! When you tell us that we should limit our arguments to matters of county, you just wonder. This issue of fuel and all these other matters that are being considered before us, how can they not be matters affecting counties? Madam Temporary Speaker, from the outset, as a leader, I am disappointed and I feel that as a leadership, the time has come for us to put our heads together. We should not just sit still on our laurels, appreciate and say that because we have been voted in by the people we represent in this House, everything is working on well. The truth of the matter is that the interest this issue is generating in this country is because Kenyans are feeling the pain and the burden of paying taxes. It has reached a point where they want to The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}