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{
    "id": 846784,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/846784/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 311,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ruaraka, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. T.J. Kajwang’",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2712,
        "legal_name": "Tom Joseph Kajwang'",
        "slug": "kajwang-tom-joseph-francis"
    },
    "content": " I do them. I use a lot of chocolates. Members of the National Assembly do not know where all these things are manufactured. These things are manufactured in Ruaraka Constituency. The great people of Ruaraka Constituency make these things. It is the reason people in estates that surround those places like Kariadudu and Kasabuni survive on employment by those factories. To raise Excise Duty to Kshs20 per kilo would have literally meant job cuts for all my people. Nearly everybody in the constituency I lead is unemployed. Then, you want to send the few that are employed to utter oblivion. It would have meant that my people would have been literally on the streets if Excise Duty was put on chocolate that is their mainstay. I am pleased with the Committee that I have seen a proposal to amend that clause so as to delete it. I had an amendment. I was going to delete it. I am so pleased now that I see the Committee has looked at it. I hope they are not going to drop it on the Floor the way they do sometimes. If they do, I will have my amendment on the Order Paper on which I will propose that. These are local manufacturers. They manufacture for export business. If they had to be taxed, it would mean that local manufacturers who already pay duty on inputs and find it expensive to raise capital would then be discouraged from local production yet they do final processing and value addition then go for export. The whole of East Africa including Rwanda, Tanzania and the latest being Uganda have abolished Excise Duty on confectioneries. In fact, it is Uganda which is our competitor in terms of confectionery. What happens to Kenyan manufactures being exposed to very cruel market circumstances where other people in the same economic block are not taxed yet they are going to be taxed, not only by their people, but also on those export areas? If I was sitting on this, I would have asked the Committee to think of taxing imported confectioneries and imported sweets. If you, for example, take the Cadbury and the brown chocolate which are wholly imported, they should be taxed. You are only killing our people if you tax Tam Tam, which is used and produced here. You should also know that the largest consumer of chocolates, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am sure you will support me in this, of sweets, are children. Now, you are just taxing children. These are the people you want to pay these taxes. So, these are some of the things which make me wonder about the thoughts or kind of people who sit at the National Treasury to propose such legislation. So, I have risen to support the fact that the Committee has decided to withdraw that very bad taxation. The last thing, as I sit down, has to do with employment. I listened to my colleague, Hon. Atandi, who is a Member of the Committee. How will Kibera grow? How will the people in Kibera have housing? How will Mathare or Korogocho people have housing? As I sat, I thought this thing was very good for my people. But having listened to debates by my colleagues, I think this is the worst thing that will ever come. I am speaking for the people who live in the slums. The idea is very good. Good ideas in this country are sometimes started for people who want to reap big. This is the same NYS thinking. If you look at Clause 68, I want to persuade my friend, Hon. Atandi that this idea is very good, but it can be brought in a better way. It refers to the 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."
}