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{
    "id": 842993,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/842993/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 235,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "We must encourage efficiency at the counties and deal with corruption. We are talking of devolution producing millionaires, but most of them are “kickback millionaires”. We must advocate for efficiency at the counties. Counties do not need to increase taxation at that level. What Kenyans forget is that Value Added Tax (VAT) is one layer of tax. We have the Income Tax and Excise Tax, but when we go to the county, that woman who sells omena and dried fish at Kisumu Market pays a tax every morning as she checks in. That boda boda operator must pay a tax. There are ropes and roadblocks all over, if you move around this country, which look like extortion points. Madam Temporary Speaker, counties have not been creative around liquor licensing and thus they have not optimised that revenue source. Outdoor advertising is a devolved function. We have seen the County Assembly of Nairobi pass an outdoor advertising law. We hope that once it is assented to by the Governor, it shall be implemented and replicated across. There has been a dispute between the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) and counties on who should collect rates from those billboards. I believe that it has been established that county governments have got the outdoor advertising responsibility, as long as the furniture or assets are on their property. Issues of local tourism and areas around agriculture are devolved. Counties must be encouraged to think beyond what they are thinking. Most counties will be defunct if they do not get money from Nairobi, and they have no motivation to collect locally. When they collect locally, the revenue collectors pay themselves because they know that despite a Cash Disbursement Schedule, there will be IFMIS and Controller of Budget problems and they will never be paid on time. Therefore, they collect from the cattle market in Kipasi, in my village, pay themselves and then bank the balance. In many hospitals, the money collected is utilised at source. I want to finalise by supporting this Schedule and encourage that it is not enough. We must address the operational, systemic and procedural issues that frustrate the realisation of this Schedule. We must also continue to encourage our governors not to levy more taxes. They should be creative, efficient and that the money that they receive should help them deliver the services that have been put in the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution. Madam Temporary Speaker, I support."
}