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{
    "id": 901368,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/901368/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 407,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Bomet Central, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ronald Tonui",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1242,
        "legal_name": "Ronald Kiprotich Tonui",
        "slug": "ronald-kiprotich-tonui"
    },
    "content": "information is very critical. We should be able to go to the Registrar of Companies and get information on any company. This should not just be information on Kenyan companies. We should be able to get information on foreign companies once they are doing business with this country. When we are talking, for example, of KQ, I was in the 11th Parliament, where we approved about Kshs20 billion to KQ and we were assured it would revive the company. It did not, possibly because KQ does not own planes. The planes are owned by other people and the company leases from them. So when we released the Kshs20 billion, they paid it to companies offshores like in Cayman Islands. When you have Kenyan companies registered offshores owning planes which KQ is using, I believe it is a conduit to loot this country. So, information even on those companies which are doing business in this country but registered offshores in Cayman Islands should be available so that when we spend Kshs20 billion of taxpayers’ money to assist KQ, we know who the beneficiaries are. When we guarantee Kshs75 billion loans which has been borrowed by KQ, it means taxpayers are losing money. We need to know the beneficiaries of such loans. I believe the Companies Act should provide that information for any member of the public to access. On the issue of the Districts and Provinces Act, 1992, where we are giving power to the CS to make regulations, this is only making adjustments to clean the Act so that it conforms to current times, because there are real complications. I even have a very big problem in my constituency, where one of the wards is considered to belong to another constituency in terms of provincial administration yet I also have other wards in other constituencies included in Bomet Central District. So there are such issues which need to be corrected and I believe if we empower the CS to do that it will be taken care of. In the morning I saw the Leader of the Majority Party accusing Members that they have a lot of conflict of interest; that when there is a particular Act being dealt with they come in numbers to support it and once it goes through they disappear. And he alluded to the issue of betting and gaming laws which he said Members come to support and they leave. Surely, Members cannot be accused to have been favouring betting companies. In the 11th Parliament, we adjusted the tax on betting to 50 per cent, but a presidential memorandum reversed it to 35 per cent. In this same Parliament, we retained that 35 per cent. The presidential memorandum on the Finance Bill reduced it further to 15 per cent. So where is the conflict of interest? Is it within Parliament or outside in the Executive? It must be very clear where the conflict of interest is. I believe fixing the interest rate at 50 per cent was very good. But the Executive’s reducing it from 50 per cent to the current 15 per cent was quite unfair. There must be conflict of interest outside there, not within this House. Currently we have so many youths engaging in betting. They think that they can become rich through betting. That is all they engage in. They borrow money from M-Shwari, friends or sell their items to engage in betting. This ensures that the rich become richer while the poor continue languishing in poverty. So it should be clarified very well that some of these issues were not done by this Parliament but by the Executive. It was only an issue of this Parliament failing to raise the two-thirds requirement."
}